Chain of Fate
by RedSoleil
Summary: Everyone knows the fates of Zelda, Link, and Ganondorf. The three's fates are strongly intertwined, but what would happen if one part of the triangle was replaced? One girl finds out what it's like to stand in the place of Princess Zelda. Will she finally end the cycle? Or will she crumble under the stress and allow the destruction of all possible forms of Hyrule? SI.
1. Chapter 1

Arc 1: First Life (and First Death)

Chapter 1: Awakening

Dying was sudden, it was the screeching of tires, the shocked screams of bystanders, the instant of blinding pain, and the taste of blood.

Living again was even more sudden, between one instant and the next I went from laying broken and bleeding in the street to opening my eyes in an unfamiliar room, in a bed with bars around it. My vision was unfocused, the sound around me distorted, my body didn't move the way I wanted it to. It was like being trapped in a fishbowl, I could only be grateful that there was no longer any pain. But I was incredibly confused and disorientated, where was I? It didn't seem like a hospital and surely after an accident as terrible as the one I was just in (was it just now? It feels like it was, but it could also have been a millennia ago.), that would be the only place that I could reasonably be. 'My family, how did they take my accident? They must have been so scared, I know I would be if I got a call that one of my family members had been hit by a truck and was in the hospital. Was my mom okay? I know she'd want to be here with me but she had five kids to look after, did she get one of the older kids to babysit them? What about her health? My mom has high blood pressure, I can only imagine what my accident must have done to her health, hopefully she hasn't been admitted into the hospital!' I try to push myself into a sitting position, but my hands won't press flat against the mattress under me, all I succeed in doing is pressing my forearms more firmly into the bed.

'What's wrong with my arms?!' I think frantically as my breathing starts to pick up, and I can feel my heart hammering in my chest. 'They don't hurt, they don't have casts on them, I can't feel anything restraining them, and I can feel the fabric on my skin so my nerves haven't been severed, so why won't they move properly?!' I try to raise my head to look at my arms but my head won't leave the mattress, the panic surges through me as I instead try to turn my head to the side and only succeed at turning it slightly. My gaze manages to land on one of my arms but they look fine, 'maybe I just can't see what's wrong with them because of my blurry eyesight? Where'd they put my glasses?!' I clumsily attempt to raise my left arm towards my face, but the joints don't bend smoothly and the entire action is far harder than it has any right to be, 'it feels like those times when I accidentally slept on my arm and cut off the circulation, is that what happened?' I eventually manage to get my arm into the air above my face, but I still can't see what's wrong with it, so I try to lower my hand closer to my face, however I end up smacking myself in the nose with my fist because I overestimated the distance between the two, and my joints didn't bend and roll as smoothly as they normally did. I gasp quietly at the pain but focus on moving my hand slightly into the air above my face, my breath freezes in my chest as I finally get a semi-clear look at my hand, it's not injured, not broken or twisted like I feared it must be. No it's far worse. Floating an inch or two above my nose is a hand that most definitely does NOT belong to me, the proportions of the fingers are completely off when compared with the hand, 'those short stubby fingers aren't mine! Those, those belong on the hands of a baby!' Sure enough the hand that I've raised in front of my face is that of a baby's. The skin is far paler and smoother than I remember my hands ever being. 'No!' I gasp as tears gather in my eyes, 'no, no, nonononono, NO! I can't be a baby! I can't be DEAD! My family… my friends, I left them. I can't have left them! How will they react? How will they cope with the death of someone important to them? My younger brother already has depression! I can't do this to him! My best friend used to cut before I met her… what if she starts again because of me?! How could I have let myself die? NO!' I scream, loud, and long, and piercingly to mourn my lost life, the friends and family that I will never be able to meet again, because even if I've been reborn into the same country, in the same year as I died, how could I ever talk to them again? Just walk up to them and say, 'hey, you remember your daughter/sister/friend that died somewhere around ten or so years ago? Yeah that's me. I've been reborn with my memories intact.' They wouldn't believe me! Not to mention that it would be callous and cruel of me to pry at their grief like that! So I scream, I scream my guilt, my sorrow, my loneliness, and my denial into the night.

'Why have I been reborn anyway?! I never believed in reincarnation, it didn't seem right that people we loved and lost would be reborn as new people. I also didn't think it added up with the increasing population of humans on the earth, so why have I been reborn? Why do I have my memories? Did my soul slip through the natural process of death (whatever that is), and end up taking over this body? Did I give an embryo that wasn't supposed to survive a soul? Or did I hijack the body of some baby who will never get to experience life now? Did some God out there decide to give me a new life without so much as a by-your-leave?! If that's the case, then why? Am I supposed to serve some kind of purpose? Or did they do it for their own twisted entertainment? If this was deliberate then couldn't they have had the decency to give me a heads up?!' Throughout my questioning I continued to scream and cry, so perhaps I should have expected it when the door to the room I was in (probably a nursery), burst open and two concerned figures rushed into the room.

They were a man and a woman, both of them were wearing sleeping gowns and had housecoats thrown hastily overtop. The clothes were silk, or maybe satin, and shimmered in the moonlight as they rushed over to the crib. The man reached in to pull me out, his hands and voice incredibly gentle as he lifted me to cradle against his chest, "oh darling, did you have a nightmare? It's okay, daddy has you, and look mommy's here too!" My hands automatically reach up to tangle in the man's long blond hair, I catch the momentary wince as I pull too hard while I continue screaming. The man's face is handsome, in a very fine, feminine way. He has high cheek bones, a thin nose, golden blond hair that extends down to his hips, and blue eyes. 'He looks very fae, or should I say elven?' I correct unconsciously as my eyes land on the long pointed ears sticking out of his long silken hair. Despite the oddity I am too distressed to ponder it more carefully. He looks frantically over to the woman, "what do I do? She won't stop screaming, her voice is starting to go hoarse!" He whispers desperately.

The woman is just as beautiful as her husband is handsome, her long brown hair has a slight wave to it and hangs as long as her husband's, even after having rushed to my room after being woken abruptly in the middle of the night, she still moves with an unearthly grace and poise, she also possesses long elven ears like her husband. Her brown eyes are warm and gentle as she reaches to take me from her husband, "perhaps she's just hungry dear, the physician did say that she will need frequent feedings for the first week or two, and that we should be prepared to be woken up during the night." She murmurs gently as she starts fiddling with her gown. I still abruptly, 'hungry? Feedings? Oh please tell me that she prefers bottles and formula.' I think frantically. I am immediately horrified as my hopes are dashed when she opens the front of her gown and repositions me against her chest. Unfortunately I AM hungry and apparently in possession of some sort of baby survival instincts as I shift automatically and begin feeding. 'Why?' My mind whines in mortification and squeamishness, 'why do I have to go through one of the things that have always horrified me as the worst possible participant?! I have nothing against mothers who breastfeed, I just have some sort of almost-phobia when it comes to pregnancy and breastfeeding. And now I am a baby. Who is breastfeeding. Who will be fed in this way many more times in the future. WHY ME?!' I whimper pathetically as I eat my fill. The drain from my emotional turmoil from earlier, and the soothing feeling of my new mother's hands stroking my head start putting me very quickly to sleep, just before I drop off I hear my new mother's voice murmur lovingly, "There we go, it's okay now. Mommy and Daddy will always be here for you, so rest well my darling little Zelda."


	2. Chapter 2

Arc 1: First Life (and First Death)

Chapter 2: Adjustment

I've heard before that the human mind will go crazy if left for 72 hours without any form of stimulus, I have no idea if it's true, but having to spend every day as an incapable, hardly mobile, baby, I can say that I damn well felt like I was slowly going insane. It's not like I was left alone for ungodly amounts of time or anything, no if anything I was doted on constantly. I was always surrounded by people, and cradled in either my mother or my father's arms. I could tell that I was immensely loved, in some ways it saved me and helped me to cope. However in other ways it crushed me with guilt and served to drive home that these were actual _people_ , not illusions or puppets, which forced me to realize and accept that this was in fact reality. I couldn't help but think sometimes that it would be better if this was just a realistic coma dream, it would mean that I could eventually wake up and return to the life I'd left behind, and that I hadn't actually stolen some little girl's life and family. I had no way of knowing if I actually _had_ stolen the life of someone who was supposed to exist (I was very deliberately pushing aside any and all thoughts related to me somehow being _that_ Zelda, reincarnation with my memories could be possible, but reincarnating into a work of fiction only happened in stories.), but the mere _possibility_ that I had stolen someone's life from them made me cringe with guilt, after all I was intimately acquainted with what it feels like to have your life stolen from you.

Over time, I eventually came to the conclusion that choosing to live this new life while weighed down with guilt for something that I didn't intend to do was unfair to me, unfair to the little girl I may or may not have replaced, and most of all it was unfair to my new parents. My new parents had no idea of any other Zelda, for better or for worse there was only me. They loved me, but they hardly got to enjoy having a baby because I was always feeling depressed and guilty so I was always crying, or solemn, or turning away from their touch. It worried them greatly, I could see the confusion and hurt on their faces every time I avoided them. I heard their whispered conversations about what they might be doing wrong, my father was especially desperate and heartbroken. He seemed convinced that my failure to open up to them was because he was a bad father, and while my mother would always calmly claim that he was a great father (rightly so, I might add.), I could still see the worry on her face, hear the sadness in her voice. My behaviour was deeply hurting two wonderful, kind, people. It'd been two and a half months since I was reborn, it was time I got over myself and started to invest myself in this new world. For my new parents who still love me unconditionally despite my sulking, and for all the people who loved me in my past life who would be sad to know that I wasn't moving on.

It was incredibly easy to allow myself to love them, even easier still to change my behaviour to show it. I will vividly remember their reaction to the first time I laughed for the rest of my life. I'd been cradled in my father's arms, he was animatedly telling me a story about when he was ten and he tried to get some flowers for mom but everything went wrong, and in the end he'd wound up covered in mud, chicken feathers, and had a single flower sticking out of the pile of mud on the top of his head, as he offered my mom some very wilted and crushed flowers. It had been so surreal to look at this proper, collected, and regal man while he talked about getting attacked by chickens as a child, and I laughed. My father's head snapped down to stare at me in shock before the largest grin that I'd ever seen on anybody spread across his face. He lifted me into the air and spun around, laughing in delight while exclaiming over the fact that I'd laughed. When he finished spinning he'd held me out to mom who'd been sitting nearby listening to his story, and said "she laughed! She actually laughed! Did you hear it?" Still with that big grin on his face.

Mom had a hand up to her mouth, she had a smile on her face just like dad, but she also had tears glistening in her eyes. Her voice trembled with emotion when she said, "yes dear, I heard. Our little darling has a beautiful laugh. Perhaps you should tell her more stories from when we were little?"

Dad crossed over to sit beside mom with a nod, "that's a brilliant idea! Which story should I tell this time?" and we spent the rest of the day curled on the couch together as my father told funny stories of his childhood and I giggled and smiled throughout all of them until I fell asleep.

While my relationship with my parents had improved and I was no longer depressed, it didn't change the fact that I was still a baby. I'd been a twenty year old woman when I'd died, I was used to being able to do what I wanted, when I wanted to. Now that I was a baby again there were far more things I simply _couldn't_ do, and wasn't _allowed_ to do, compared with what I was used to. To put it simply, it was completely maddening. I felt like a prisoner within my own body. Every time I tried to move, my limbs would fly through the air in wild, jerky, swings. I had absolutely no control or precision with my movements, not to mention the fact that I had next to no muscle tone so every movement took monumentally more effort to perform. Because I couldn't move I was subject to long periods of boredom, interspersed with naps and playing with my parents. Due to my age I spent a good portion of my time sleeping, but I was well aware that as I got older I would stay awake longer, which meant more time of just lying in my crib, bored out of my mind.

It should be no surprise then, that I decided that I needed to regain my mobility as quickly as physically possible. I was originally hesitant about doing this, because wouldn't I -as a baby with the determination of a supremely bored adult- very quickly surpass all the expected milestones? I didn't want to make my parents scared of me, or unsettle the staff, by maturing much too quickly. But I was so bored, so frustrated with my lack of mobility, that I snapped and decided that it was more important that I could move, than how my parents might react. A large part of what fueled this decision was my supreme discomfort at the fact that I wasn't potty trained. Diapers are super convenient when your baby is a normal baby that doesn't know how to hold their bladder, or that they need to go in the toilet. But they are the worst things ever when you have the mentality of an adult but the physicality of a baby. If I could physically drag myself to the bathroom I would never use a diaper ever again. So I began working out, well as much as a baby can work out anyway.

I opened and closed my fists repeatedly in order to strengthen the tendons and ligaments in my wrists. I would wiggle my fingers, trying to get the fingers to move independently and not just spread slightly. I would roll my wrists and ankles so that I could move my arms and legs more precisely. I also did larger movements like turning and lifting my head, raising and lowering my legs and arms, and tensing my abdominal muscles (because sitting up was far beyond me at this point in time). Each of these exercises were incredibly draining on my little body so I wound up sleeping a lot. My parents found my exercises adorable, and they would let me squeeze their fingers repeatedly, or as hard as I could for as long as I could. It made me incredibly grateful that my parents had obviously never spent any time around real babies or they would notice that all of my movements were far too deliberate for any normal child.

Emboldened by their oblivious approval of my exercises, I began to do more in their presence. I would no longer stop what I was doing as soon as they walked into the room, instead continuing to work out until they did something to gather my attention, like calling my name, talking to me, or picking me up. They even wound up inventing new exercises for me by coaching me through a movement a few times and expecting me to continue doing it after they stopped. It was certainly an unusual way of playing, but we enjoyed it.

Of course we also played more ordinary games, like peekaboo and tickle monster, they would read and sing to me, gently bounce me up and down, and chat with each other (and pretend to hold conversations with me) while curled up on the couch or in bed. As a result my days as a baby passed by in a blur of exercise, sleep, and playing with my parents.


	3. Chapter 3

Arc 1: First Life (and First Death)

Chapter 3: Reality Makes Itself Known

I first started to notice that things weren't as I thought they were shortly after my first birthday. My parents held a private, family only party for me on the day before I was actually born, we had cake, and presents, and we played games. It was fun but exhausting, and I thought as I went to bed that night that I could be quite content to have a party like that every year. I was in for quite the surprise the next day though. See that quiet party? It was my parents' attempt to actually get to celebrate my birth the way they wanted to. The next day the whole country celebrated my birthday, and my parents were far busier socialising and being good hosts to spend much time with me.

I was woken up that morning by my mother, it was much earlier than I normally wake up. She rushed around the room in a flurry of silk and shot off quick instructions to the maids -that I was admittedly too out of it to catch- before hurrying out of the room. The maids proceeded to brush out my long brown hair -brown like my mother's but straight like my father's- and pulled it back away from my face. They braided the bottom foot, and put a slim silver circlet around my temples. One of the maid's had a tray with meat, cheese, crackers, and fruit on it that she proceeded to feed me small bites of while the other two did my hair. She gave me an apologetic smile when she offered me the first bite and said, "I'm terribly sorry that this is all I can offer you Princess, but I'm afraid you won't have time to sit down for breakfast today." I took the bite while pondering her words, 'no time for breakfast? And why are they doing my hair so nicely? Maybe we have an important guest coming? I wonder if it'll be my grandparents, I haven't met them yet.'

When the maids finished my hair, one of them pulled a cloth out of a basin of hot water and carefully wrung it out. As she approached with the cloth, the maid who'd been feeding me retreated with the tray, I realized dismally that I was apparently done eating even though I wasn't full yet. The maid took the cloth and began gently scrubbing my face with it, she was being very careful not to touch my hair or knock the circlet. After she finished, she took a clean, dry, towel and dried my face off. At that moment the third maid re-emerged from where ever she'd disappeared to, carrying a child-sized satin dress in her arms. She laid the dress down on a nearby chair while the maid who'd previously been feeding me appeared with some shoes, she set them at the foot of the chair. I was beckoned over to stand near the chair, and they began the surprisingly arduous task of dressing me without disturbing my hair. I couldn't help but wonder why they didn't dress me before they did my hair, 'maybe to avoid wrinkling the dress?'

After I was fully dolled up, the three maids hurriedly led me out my room and down the hallway, frantically muttering, "we can't be late for the speech!" to themselves. Shortly after we met up with my parents next to some very grand looking doors. I was thoroughly confused about what was going on, my parents were dressed just as fancily as me, with their own gold circlets resting around their temples. Before I could ask what was happening my mother leaned down and took my hand, "you're just in time. Now Zelda you are to stand tall, don't fidget, smile, and wave to the people, alright?" She said while looking seriously into my eyes. I nod in understanding and she straightened and together the three of us stepped out the doors which were opened by some men in tunics.

When the doors were opened it felt like stepping into another world, because all of the sudden I could hear the cheers and laughter of hundreds of people. As soon as I stepped out the sound amplified many fold as the crowd saw me. "Long live the Princess! Long live our new Princess Zelda!" Was roared from hundreds of throats as we came to stand on the balcony overlooking the courtyard that the crowd was standing in. 'Oh.' I thought faintly, 'I thought princess was just a pet name…' I smiled and waved down at the people just like mother had told me to, and the air vibrated with the sheer force of their cheers.

After what felt like an eternity of listening to the people cheer, but was probably only a few minutes, my father stepped forward and raised his hand. Instantly the entire crowd fell into an expectant silence, the only thing I could think was, 'man, my school teachers would've killed to be able to do that,' slightly hysterically. My father began speaking in a clear, carrying voice, "thank you all for joining us on such an important day. As you all know, today marks the one year anniversary of our daughter, Princess Zelda's birth. We are overwhelmingly pleased to be able to celebrate this day with you, our people. I hope you all enjoy the festival that has been arranged to commemorate this occasion. Additionally, the castle grounds have been opened today for your enjoyment. There are some booths set up by local vendors on the castle grounds and in the village. To those of you who would like to join us in the Grand Ballroom tonight for dancing and other festivities, that is where my family and I shall spend most of the night. I hope you all have a spectacular time today!" My father finishes boisterously to the sound of ecstatic cheers.

We wave at the crowd one last time before we sweep back inside the castle, cheers and excited voices following us. Once inside my mother reached down and lifted me into her arms, "today will be a very busy, and very tiring day my Princess. But you must be on your best behaviour. Our citizens are very excited at the chance to meet you, many of them will probably come to give you their congratulations in person. When they do, you must be polite and friendly, we don't want to disappoint any of our guests. Also, it will get very crowded in the Ballroom today, you must stay near me and your father so that you don't get lost in the crowd. Understood, Zelda?" My mother questioned sternly.

I bob my head, "yes mom." I say seriously.

She smiles down at me, "good. Now we should be going if we want to arrive before our guests."

My father reaches over and takes me from my mother, he settles me in one arm and takes my mother's hand in his other. He smiles brightly at my mom as he does so, and says, "there, now we're ready to go." My mother smiles back at him, and together the three of us walk to the ballroom, the guards in tunics following behind us.

The rest of the day passed in a blur of people, music, scents, and sounds. It was overwhelming being around so many people, worse still because I was the main subject of interest so the crowd was always thickest wherever I was. I lost track of all the people who came to congratulate me, there were dozens of exclamations over how cute and well behaved I was, and many blessings and wishes for me to have a happy and healthy life. There was so many that the same person could probably have greeted me the exact same way three separate times, and I wouldn't even have noticed. I might have done a better job at keeping track of the people coming and going if my mind wasn't elsewhere.

See, my mind has been running on a loop since the speech this morning. It always started with, 'I'm an actual PRINCESS.' Then it would jump to, 'I'm a princess named ZELDA!' Which would be followed by, 'OH MY GOD, I'M PRINCESS ZELDA!' Then it would run through, 'I CAN'T be Princess Zelda! She's from a video game series!' and, 'I was reincarnated with my memories intact, pretty sure I shouldn't be questioning possibility at this point.' And, 'Holy Crap! I'm Princess Zelda! Doesn't that mean I can use magic?!' Which would be brought crashing down with, 'oh my god, this means that I did steal someone's life after all…' After which I would shake myself and think, 'I've already apologized and gone through plenty of guilt for that before I knew for sure, I'm not going down that route again.' And then a thought would occur to me, 'what about Link? His Zelda's not here anymore, weren't they lovers or something? Or, wait, were they lovers? I think they were? But I can't remember any events from the games I've played where they acted like a couple… Curse me for only being a casual Zelda fan! Regardless of whether they were a couple or not, Link still needed Zelda's help in order to beat Ganondorf right? I mean she is part of the Triforce so she must be important? How am I supposed to fulfill this role? I don't even remember much from the Zelda games that I have played… I'm so screwed…' Which would devolve into me thinking about how royally screwed I was for a while before I tried to cheer myself up, 'hey look on the bright side! You're a Princess, which means you're rich! And that you can have a good deal of fun with it before responsibilities crop up!' which would bring me back to the beginning with the realization that I was, in fact, an actual Princess. It seems my brain just kept getting stuck on that one point, which would start me on the loop all over again.

It was a physically and mentally exhausted Princess that finally fell into bed that night. Luckily I was tired enough that my brain shut down as soon as I got into bed and allowed me to drift off into sleep.


	4. Chapter 4

Arc 1: First Life (and First Death)

Chapter 4: Magic, and other careless endeavors

Two years passed fairly uneventfully, aside from the beginning of my royal education. When I turned two my parents told me over dinner that I would start on the easier lessons, like etiquette, dancing, singing, one of the many instruments that they eventually planned to teach me, and some history and geography. Those last two were more for the purpose of continued repetition from a young age so that the knowledge would be thoroughly ingrained in my mind. I was honestly surprised that they were starting my education so young, I thought they would wait until I was at least five before they started my formal education. However my mom quickly put any concerns that it was because I'd progressed so quickly as a baby to rest when she casually mentioned that I would be following the same schedule that my parents had when they were young. Which meant that it was in fact normal for royalty in Hyrule to start their education at two years old.

With the beginning of lessons came a bunch of new faces and names that I needed to learn as my tutors moved into the castle. All of my tutors. Even the ones that wouldn't start teaching me for a few years yet. My father had pet my head lovingly when I'd questioned why they were all moving in right now, and not just the ones that I would be having lessons with. He explained that this way all of my tutors had time to settle in the castle, and that I wouldn't be unfamiliar with them when they started teaching. I suppose they were attempting to mitigate any favoritism I might develop towards the tutors that I'd had lessons with for years, versus the ones that started teaching me later? I guess it was a reasonable strategy, I was just concerned because I'd never been very good with names in my past life. Actually I guess you could reasonably say that I still wasn't very good with names, considering that I still couldn't remember the names of my new parents. To be fair, they refer to themselves exclusively as my mother and father (technically mommy and daddy), but they are royalty, the maids and guards occasionally refer to them as King or Queen followed by their name. I find it rather embarrassing that I still don't remember their names despite this fact.

Regardless of my future struggle to remember all the names of the tutors, their faces, AND what they taught, there were a few that jumped out to me. Either because they had unusual appearances or names (my etiquette tutor was a ZORA, how fucking awesome is that?!), or because I was excited or curious about the subject that they'll teach. The subjects that I'll be learning over the course of my life are: etiquette, dancing, singing, instrumental music, history, geography, politics, math, horse riding, swordsmanship, magic, diplomacy, tactics, reading and writing, and relations. That last one is a class about managing my relationship with the citizens, ensuring I remain popular and that I know how to find out what's troubling the people. Each class will be taught by a different tutor, that's fifteen tutors!

The classes that I was excited for should be fairly obvious from that list. Magic, swordsmanship, horse riding, and tactics? Those sound incredible! Unfortunately, when the tutors introduced themselves and their subjects, they also said how old I would be when they started teaching me. Horse riding starts at five, which is the earliest of the classes I was interested in. Swordsmanship will start at eight, disappointing but doable. Tactics at thirteen, that's quite a long way from now. And most disappointingly, magic at sixteen. _SIXTEEN_?! That's so not fair! Why do I have to wait fourteen years before I can start learning magic?! When I found out that I was Zelda a year ago I was so excited to be able to use magic, but now I'm hearing that I have to wait until I'm sixteen? Surely Zelda in most games wasn't much older than sixteen (this is excluding the games in which she is clearly younger than sixteen). At most she couldn't be any older than twenty! Do they expect me to face Ganon with only a few months to four years of magic study? Absolutely not! I will find some way to push that class up, no matter what I have to do!

For the next year I would hound my parents and my magic tutor (he was a scholarly looking man named Mr. Alvion. He wore robes, usually in a dark blue, had short black hair and blue eyes. He was tall, with a lean build, I placed his age at somewhere in his early twenties. He was brisk, polite but no-nonsense.), alternately begging, pleading, demanding, and convincing them to let me start magic class earlier. Each time the answer was the same, I would start magic class when I turned sixteen, just as scheduled. It was discouraging how set they were on this fact, but I was determined that I'd get them to cave one way or the other, even if it was only to bring the date down by a single year.

Which is why, approximately nine months after my third birthday, I was sitting on the stone floor in Mr. Alvion's classroom with one of his magic books open in front of me. Let me make this clear, I wasn't in my current position because I'd managed to convince either my parents or Mr. Alvion. No, I was here because I hadn't, so I decided that the best course of action from now on was to teach myself how to use magic in secret, then demonstrate my abilities so they thought I was a genius, then they would be clamoring to start my lessons early. I didn't normally do such selfish things because it made me feel bad, and even now I'm tense with guilt for breaking into Mr. Alvion's classroom and reading his books without permission, but I was determined to do this. They simply didn't understand what was at stake. My being here, as Princess Zelda, meant that Ganondorf had to be close to revival/return (whatever it was that actually happened). I had the lives of all of Hyrule weighing on my shoulders, maybe not as heavily as Link did, but he'd done this before -even if he didn't know it- and he'd do it again. I wasn't the real Zelda, I hadn't done this before, I wasn't supposed to be here, and for all I know that could throw everything out of balance. So I _had_ to be stronger, smarter, faster, more capable, because my presence could mean that things that would've happened to strengthen Link or Zelda, or weaken Ganon, or smooth things out, might just… not happen. Which means that if we fail, it will inarguably be because of me.

I have to tide things over, make sure this cycle ended correctly, until Zelda returned. I was sure that she would return. I was here because of some cosmic mistake, and I'm sure that the Goddess (there was a Goddess in Zelda lore right?) had already noticed the mistake, but she had to wait until I died in order to reincarnate Zelda. After all it must be easier to reincarnate a soul in place of another, than it is to yank a soul from its body and place a new one inside it. Especially since Zelda doesn't keep her memories of her past lives, she's a noble soul so she would probably agree to save Hyrule if the Goddess asks her to, but she hasn't experienced the past three years of my life. She doesn't know our parents, doesn't know the servants, or the tutors, and she hasn't experienced the significant events that have occurred in this life. People would be able to tell that something was wrong with her. And while it would probably be possible to orchestrate an accident, then switch our souls, and claim that Zelda simply had memory loss from the accident to explain her lacking memories and even her different personality. That would be way too complicated, it would cause unnecessary stress in the royal family, and something could go wrong with the accident. It was simply easier to let me run this cycle than to potentially mess it up by trying to switch us.

Because of this, I _had_ to do a good job, for the country, for Zelda, for Link, for the Goddess, and for me. I don't know how this mistake came to be, but I would be super ashamed if the Goddess, Zelda, and Link, were disappointed in my performance. I could live (haha live) with it if they thought 'that was good but Zelda would've done better,' because Zelda _would have._ But I couldn't stand it if they thought I'd done a terrible job, that I ruined everything, so I had to learn magic as soon as possible so that I could get as much experience with it as I could, in order to make up the difference.

So I turned my attention back to the book in front of me, I'd already read the thick tome, spent two months making sure I completely understood everything and memorising as much of it as possible. It had been tedious and boring, but I was determined to succeed. And I began following the steps it had outlined. The book claimed that fire magic was the easiest for beginners to conjure, so today I was going to try to create a flame. I turned my concentration inside me, to try to find my magical core. The book said that it can sometimes take many tries in order to find it, so I was prepared to fail today, just like I had the last three times that I'd done this exact thing. Therefore I was quite surprised when I actually found it this time. There sitting under my heart was a flickering, blazing, crackling, ball of warmth and power. I smiled to myself in joy, careful not to release my concentration though. I calmly cupped my hands in my lap and calmly and slowly _pulled_ on the energy in my chest, at first nothing happened so I gradually increased the strength of my pull until sweat broke out on my brow and my head started to throb from the pressure, but finally the magic began moving slowly. I carefully directed the power to flow down my arms and into my hands, the magic tingled and felt warm as it traveled. I pooled a small amount of magic into my hands as I concentrated on the concept of _fire_. I picture the crackling flame, the smell of smoke, the heat that comes off it in waves, all while picturing a small tongue of flame about the size that adorns a birthday candle. 'Keep it small, no need to exhaust myself or risk losing control, I only need to summon a tiny amount of fire today.'

I _feel_ the magic flow out my hands, settling just an inch or two above the skin of my palms, before my hands feel a warmth radiating against them. I feel my heart soar, 'I did it! I summoned fire!' The flame flickers in my hands in response to my faltering concentration and I quickly turn my attention back to maintaining the flame. The magic fire stabilizes, and I spend a moment just concentrating on the flow and making sure I can keep it steady before I finally open my eyes. I open them slowly, worried that if I move too fast I'll lose focus again and the flames will go out. Once my eyes are fully open, they settle on the tiny flame flickering and twisting in my hands. I just sit there, silently staring at it in awe for several minutes, allowing myself to really soak in the fact that I just performed a feat of magic.

However the moment is abruptly shattered when I hear my mother call "Zelda! Dear, where are you? You're going to be late for your next lesson!" from down the hall. My heart lurches with surprise and guilt, 'if she catches me in here she's going to be so upset and disappointed!' I think frantically. In that moment my concentration on the flame in my hands had been completely shattered, and my surge of emotion had caused my magic to flood forward. All of the sudden the flame surged in size and strength and I had a powerful blaze rushing towards my face. With a shriek I _shoved_ the flame away, my palms angling away from me and out toward the room, the fire increased in size again as my _shove_ accidentally poured _more_ magic into it. The _inferno_ rushed out of my hands and engulfed both the book on the floor, and the wooden bookshelves, laden with tomes on magic. The books being made of paper served as very efficient fuel for the fire and within seconds the whole room was ablaze.

I was frozen to my spot in a mixture of soul crushing terror, and extreme mental and physical exhaustion from accidentally draining my magic by fueling the fire. The inferno _ROARED_ in front of and on either side of me, the heat blasting at me in oppressive waves, and the smoke curling thick and dark in the air above me, further sapping my strength and making me feel sleepy. 'I'm going to die.' I realize numbly, unable to move so much as a finger in an attempt to save myself. 'Oh, Mr. Alvion I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to destroy your books.' I think faintly before there's a crash as the door slams against the stone wall, "ZELDA!" my mother's voice shrieks hysterically as she sees me sitting amidst the flames. 'She must have heard me shriek and come running.' I watch from where I've fallen on the floor, my vision swimming in and out of focus, as my mother rushes fearlessly through the roaring flames to my side. "Oh my poor baby! Don't worry dear, mother's got you!" My mother wails as she pulls me into her arms, her voice wavering with fear and pain as she speaks, her tears evaporating off her face even as she cries them.

"Mom," I gasp weakly, feeling my own eyes brimming with tears, "I'm sorry." I whisper hoarsely at her, completely sure that we are both going to die in this fire that I've created. 'I was a fool, an arrogant fool. Of course practicing magic without a supervisor is dangerous. And now my mother is going to die because of me.'

"Shhh," my mother soothes, as she cradles me against her chest, her smile pained and sad. "We'll be okay, darling. Everything's okay. Just look at mommy, only at mommy." She whispers, her voice cracking with emotion as she holds me close. I don't know how long we stayed there, huddled together in the middle of a burning room, my mother attempting to shield me from the fire with her own body. Before she slumps over onto me, unconscious, her clothes on fire.

"Mom! Mom!" I tried to cry out to her, but I was so weak I wasn't sure I even managed to get the words out. My vision darkened around the edges, and I realized that I couldn't breathe. 'I'm sorry…' I think faintly as my consciousness slips.

Suddenly, I hear a noise that isn't the crackling of fire. Mr. Alvion steps into the room and raises his hands. I feel his magic rush over me as it sweeps through the room, extinguishing the fire. He sways and staggers backwards from the drain, and my father catches him and briskly hands him off to one of the many men standing behind him, with a quick but heartfelt, "thank you." Before he's rushing into the still hot, smoky, and charred room, "SHIANDRA! ZELDA!" he shouts desperately as he runs over to where my mother and I lay. He kneels down next to us and carefully lifts my mother off of me, he quickly checks her heartbeat, and breathes a visible sigh of relief before he's passing her off to the castle doctor who followed him in, "take care of her." He says firmly to the doctor, before he's tenderly picking me up to check me over. "You're okay, princess. You're okay." He held me close to his body, I could feel his body shaking as he cried into my hair, "I was so scared that I would lose you and Shiandra. I'm so glad that you're okay."

I feel weak and tired, and my skin feels too tight, and everything hurts but I clutch to my father and cry, though no tears come out, "I'm sorry, it's all my fault. I'm sorry. I'm sorry." I whisper weakly. I want to scream it to the heavens but I can't muster the energy and my voice rasps nearly inaudibly with the smoothness of nails being scrapped against sand paper.

My father clutches me tighter to his chest as he stands, "shhh, its okay. You're safe now. You and your mother are safe now. You won't have to go through anything as scary ever again. Your daddy will protect you." He carries me out of the room that I never thought I would leave alive, whispering reassurances and petting my head as he carries me to the hospital wing. He keeps his eyes on the men transporting my mother and the doctor who's checking on her, as we move quickly through the hallways, all the while I murmur apologies and he tries to reassure me.


	5. Chapter 5

Arc 1: First Life (and First Death)

Chapter 5: Consequences

I woke up in my bed, feeling like I'd rolled in coals and swallowed a few of them for good measure. My arms, legs, torso, and face were wrapped tightly in bandages. There was a smell in the air that I didn't recognize, but seemed medical, 'probably burn cream.' I just lay there in bed for a second as my brain flashes through the events of yesterday, smoke, pain, heat, fear, light, exhaustion, darkness, guilt. My eyes slide shut, but the tears still slip past and run down my face. 'I nearly killed my mom. I nearly killed myself. All because I was impatient and thought I knew best. I just wanted to be strong enough, to be good enough, but I guess that I'm not.' Part of me wondered however, 'why hadn't the Goddess taken advantage of my accident to switch me out? I clearly proved that I'm really bad at this so she should have wanted to, right? I even provided a perfect excuse for memory loss and a change in personality, trauma can change people. But here I am. Maybe she's still not aware of the situation?' But a small flicker of hope ignites in my chest, 'does she think that I can still do it? Or maybe she's giving me another chance? If so, then thank you. I swear that I'll do better!' I vow solemnly.

A few minutes later the door opens and one of my maids steps in, her name is Almina, she has auburn hair twisted up into a bun, and a generous smattering of freckles across her cheeks. I've never seen Almina without a cheerful smile on her face before, but she looked solemn when she entered my room carrying a tray. She looked up after she closed the door, and I saw her whole body freeze as she realized that I was watching her, she stayed like that for what must have been a good ten seconds before her body trembled and the tray went tumbling from her hands. She rushed towards me, "Princess! You're awake!" She exclaimed as tears gathered in her eyes. She practically threw herself onto my bed, she'd been careful not to land on me though. Her hands fluttered over me as though she wanted to hug, or pet me, while she spoke, "oh Princess, you have no idea how worried I was! How worried everyone was!" Her tears started to slide down her face, and her body shuddered as she continued, "We thought you were going to die! I've been looking after you this whole week, afraid that the next time I'd enter your room I'd find that you'd passed on. A week Princess! A week!" She practically wailed. 'I've been unconscious for an entire week? I must've been really close to dying…' I thought numbly, shocked at the strength of Almina's emotions. She brought her hands up to her face as her shoulders shook, "I'm so glad you're alive…" I tried to reach out to comfort her, but it took a lot of effort, and before I could fully close the distance Almina was leaping to her feet, "I have to tell the King! His highness has been worried sick about you this entire time, he needs to know that you're awake!" And she was tearing off towards the door without a backwards glance, in the fevered rush of strong emotions. The door slammed shut at the force of her exit.

I laid there, sort of stunned, with my hand still hovering in the air where it had almost -but horrifically failed- to lay itself on Almina's arm in comfort. The words of apology that had been poised on my lips evaporated into the empty room as my arm dropped listlessly onto the mattress. 'I've never seen Almina act like that… We've always been close, she would play with me in the gardens and tell me stories -that I was fairly sure she made up- while she brushed my hair. She was so creative, but I don't think she even realized it. She was kind, cheerful, and creative, the sort of person that pulls others towards them. But she was so humble that I doubt she knew how much people liked her. I worried that same girl so badly that I could hardly believe it was her. I really messed up.' I feel tears welling in my eyes from my guilt, but breathe through it. 'It was an accident, you did everything you could to be careful, but you endangered everyone by being impatient. What's done is done, apologize to everyone, do your best to heal quickly, and learn from this mistake. No more going behind your parent's backs.' Despite my attempts to calm down I still feel a few tears slide down my face, 'learn from this mistake.' I repeat firmly to myself as I lay an arm over my eyes as I begin to cry in earnest.

The door opened once more, this time my father stepped into the room, not that I saw because I was still crying quite hard. He crossed over to my bed, "Zelda? Are you alright sweetheart?" He asked with concern as he reaches out to gently stroke my head. "Are you in pain? I can call the physician for you?" He asks gently.

I shake my head, "'m fine, it doesn't hurt that badly." I murmur weakly, my voice still very gravelly.

He nods, "alright. But will you tell me why you're crying then?" He reaches over to the side table and grabs a glass of water that was sitting there, "here, you must be parched darling, drink this before you speak, it should help your throat." He helps me sit up before he hands me the class. Even after my hands have closed around it he doesn't let go of the cup. Which I'm quite grateful for, because my hands shake a little from the effort of lifting the cup to my lips, and I would undoubtedly have spilled it all over myself without his assistance.

I drink deep and long as the cool liquid eases the burning in my throat, only lowering the cup once it's completely empty. My father takes the glass and sets it back on the nightstand before he turns to look at me expectantly, his eyes still look concerned. My hands had dropped exhaustedly into my lap once they were no longer holding onto the cup, and my eyes slide down to focus on them after my father had turned to look at me. I stare quietly at my hands for several long seconds as I work up the nerve to speak, my father sitting patiently and encouragingly beside me. Eventually I open my mouth, "I'm sorry." I whisper quietly. "I was crying because I felt guilty for hurting mom, and worrying everyone…" I start to cry again as I look up at my father, "I was impatient and frustrated so I tried to teach myself magic, and because I was selfish I nearly killed mom!" I wail in a frantic rush as the words spill from my lips.

My father reaches out and pulls me against his chest, "shhh, it's alright. Your mother will be okay, she's just sleeping in the hospital wing to recover her strength just like you did. Everything will be okay." He soothes.

I shake my head against his chest, "no, it's not okay. I did a terrible thing and nearly killed mom, how am I ever supposed to make it up to you and her? I can't ever take back what I did, what nearly happened. Because of me you could have lost your daughter and wife in one afternoon! That's unforgivable!" I clutch tightly at his robes, face buried in his chest, and shoulders shaking from distress.

His arms tighten around me, and his voice wobbles from the effort of holding back his tears, "if you two had died it would have killed me." I wail quietly at the admission. "But you lived, you are safe now. And while we can't just pretend this had never happened, and we'll carry the physical and emotional scars for the rest of our lives, you lived. I can hold you in my arms, and hear you laugh, and listen to you question the world around you. This is not the end, we will get through this. And it will never happen again." He finishes resolutely.

I lean back slightly to look him in the eyes, "I swear I will never attempt to use my magic without proper training ever again. I'll wait until I'm sixteen to start learning magic just like you said I should. And I won't go behind your back to try to learn something you think is dangerous either. I swear!"

My father pats my head with a small smile, "thank you Zelda." But then his face firms up sternly, "however, you will no longer be learning magic. Not even after you turn sixteen. This incident has shown me that magic is far too dangerous for you to ever learn. I won't lose you." His voice is firm, his expression hard.

"W-what?!" I blurt in shock, 'but I NEED to learn magic! How am I supposed to fight Ganondorf otherwise?!'

He looks down at me sternly, "you will not be learning magic, and that's final. In fact I've already dismissed Mr. Alvion as your tutor. He's been properly reimbursed for the books you burned, and for his role in saving your lives, but you will not be seeing him again."

I sit there staring in shock at my father's resolute face with the dawning horror that he's serious and I won't be able to sway him from his decision, at least not without a good argument. However the only thing that might be able to change his mind is the knowledge that Ganon is coming and I will need to fight him. But how would I explain how I know that? Claim to be clairvoyant? But I don't even know when he'll arrive, nor am I able to predict anything else to cement my claim. He'd never believe me. No, I'll have to agree with my father's decision, at least until I'm sixteen and he might've calmed down, or until some sign of Ganon's return -arrival?- so that I can argue that I need to learn magic in order to protect myself. I'll have to pour my all into swordsmanship until then in order to make up for the lack of experience I'll have with magic. I nod seriously up at him, "I understand father. Mr. Alvion wasn't mad about being dismissed, was he?" I'm genuinely worried about that, not only did I burn up his entire collection of magic tomes -no telling how rare some of the books might have been- but I also lost him his job.

I'm relieved to see my father shake his head, "no, he wasn't upset. In fact he was incredibly apologetic about not having better security on the door of his classroom, was convinced that his negligence in securing the books was to blame for the incident. I informed him that it was just an accident and that he is in no way responsible for it occurring. Before you ask, the money I reimbursed him with is more than enough to replace the books, furthermore he expressed his desire to open a magic school with the rest of the money, I thought it was a novel idea and approved the construction."

I blink up at him in surprise, 'a magic school? I had no idea Mr. Alvion was so ambitious. Maybe that's why he became my tutor in the first place? To earn the money he needed for the construction, and the rapport with my father in order to get it approved?' I say with an ironic smile, "well, at least something good came out of this." Because this is good. A magic school means more people will learn magic, and higher levels of magic. This could mean that in exchange for my chance to gain experience with magic that we could wind up with a whole squadron -division?- of mages to help in the fight against Ganondorf and his monsters!

My father smiles brightly down at me, "that's right! This school will help bring the entire country into a new era of prosperity! I really am very grateful to Mr. Alvion."

I nod in agreement, "me too, dad."

He gently pats my head again, "I'm glad you woke up Zelda, it definitely eases my worries. However the physician said it will take longer for you to fully recover, so it would be best if you got some more sleep."

'It's weird how despite effectively having slept for a week I don't feel rested, I suppose it's a different kind of rest?' I give my father one last hug before settling into my bed, "goodnight dad." I murmur quietly.

He lightly kisses my forehead, "goodnight, sweetheart." He rises and crosses the room to blow out the lantern, before he quietly slips out the door.


	6. Chapter 6

Arc 1: First Life (and First Death)

Chapter 6: Burns and Bandages

The next morning I woke up some time after ten, I turned to my left to look at the presence I felt beside me, and saw Almina setting a tray down on my bedside table. After she finished she looked up, saw me watching her again, and smiled at me, "you're awake Princess! Did you sleep well?" She asked cheerily.

'It's a relief to see Almina smiling again,' I smile back at her, "I slept very well, how are you?" To my surprise she seems to startle at my question, before she blushes and looks down, "Almina?" I question when she doesn't respond after a minute.

She abruptly drops into a deep bow and almost shouts, "I am incredibly sorry for my conduct yesterday, it was inappropriate of me to act so recklessly in the presence of a recovering patient! I was overwhelmed with relief that you were okay, that you would be okay, and I let myself go crazy with my relief and joy, and failed to account for the fact that you were still tired and weak, and that you would be quite concerned when I started crying! I am so embarrassed that I put my own needs before yours, and I'm very sorry Princess!" I can hear the sincerity in her words, she is truly embarrassed of how she acted yesterday, even though I'm pretty sure that reaction is fairly normal when faced with the fact that someone you care about that nearly died is okay.

I quickly attempt to reassure her, "it's alright, Almina! I understand that you were under a large amount of stress from worrying about me while I was unconscious, I'm not mad at you for being relieved!" My voice drops a little in volume as I continue, "in fact, it's kind of nice to know that you care about me so much." I give her a shy smile.

She looks up at me wide eyed, before she moves to pull me into a hug, "oh Princess, of course I care about you!" She pulls away a little in order to look me in the eyes, with a small smile on her lips, "in fact you're almost like a little sister to me! Which might be a bit arrogant of me to claim seeing as I'm just a maid, but I care about you deeply, and I don't want you to forget it!"

I hurriedly shake my head, "I don't think it's arrogant! I think of you like a big sister too! I love you very much Almina!" I instantly blush and clamp my mouth shut, 'should I have said that I love her? I mean it's true, I love her like family, but I've never really said as much before and it feels awkward to say. I don't know how close we are, I think I would say very close considering her concern when I was hurt, and her confession that she thinks of me as a little sister, but am I wrong? I could-'

My tangent of worried thoughts gets abruptly cut off as Almina squeals delightedly and pulls me into a firm -but gentle- hug, "oh Princess, I love you lots as well! You're so adorable! Big sister Almina will do her best to dote on you tons from now on!"

I hug her back as I struggle with how to respond, eventually I settle for gratitude, and an invitation to act informally around me, "thanks Almina… You can call me Zelda, you know?"

She gasps slightly, "really?! But I'm a maid, it might not be appropriate…" As she trails off I frown disappointedly up at her, when she sees my expression she quickly rushes out, "of course as long as I only call you by name when we're alone then it should be totally fine! I would love to call you Zelda!"

I smile brightly up at her, "thank you Almina! I'm very grateful!"

She smiles fondly down at me, "it's no problem Zelda." She pauses for a moment, her eyes go wide in realization and she glances back at the tray on the side table, "I forgot! I need to take your bandages off Zelda, your burns are all healed now!"

I blink up at her in surprise, "they are? But the room still smells like burn cream?"

She looks at me in surprise, "it does? It's been three days since we stopped using the cream, your burns were fairly minor… Oh dear, that means that I must've gotten used to the smell! I'll air your room out as soon as we take your bandages off and change you into some clean pajamas!"

I nod in acceptance, "okay, thank you Almina." She grabs the tray as I take my shirt off so she can get at the bandages around my torso. I take a moment to look at the bandages wrapped around my body and down both my arms, "hey… Almina, did any of my burns scar?" I ask quietly. I personally don't have anything against scars, they tell a story of the things you've been through. But Zelda with scars? I don't really know how to feel about that. On one hand, if the game creators had gone a similar route as they had with Tetra and made a strong warrior version of Princess Zelda with scars, I think she'd be pretty damn cool. On the other hand, Zelda is a beautiful, seemingly untouchable, princess who can use magic, not having any scars makes her feel proud and ethereal. I don't know what to feel about either possibility really.

Almina looks up at me, her expression slightly sad, "oh Zelda…" Her voice trails off weakly at the end.

I take a moment to study her face and the tone of voice she used before I nod in acceptance, "I take it that means they did, which places and how badly?" I ask calmly, 'so I have scars, well I was never going to be like video game Zelda anyway. I'm my own person, with my own personality and quirks. I could never be as graceful and regal as her, in my past life I was always bouncing off walls and tripping up sets of stairs, not to mention that I am a total dork. I guess this will help differentiate us, so that I don't keep comparing myself to her. That way lies the path of disappointment.'

Almina hesitates for a moment longer before she says quietly, "you only have one, and it's not very bad…" She trails off again.

I look her in the eyes, "but?" I prompt, 'whatever it is, she thinks I won't like it.'

She sighs minutely before she says, "but it's on your face Zelda."

I blink dumbly at her. "Oh." I breathe, as I reach up to touch my face. 'I didn't consider that…' I struggle with my thoughts for a moment, trying to decide how I feel about this piece of information before I mentally shrug, 'well, I suppose this will help me look in the mirror and recognize my face, instead of constantly seeing Zelda's, that always made me feel indescribably lonely.' I look back up at Almina, she's been watching my reactions nervously, and hold my hand out, "can I have a mirror please? I'd like to see it." Almina stares at me in shock, she, and everyone else really, are aware of my aversion to looking in mirrors. She reaches into a pocket on her apron and pulls out a small square mirror, she gingerly hands it over to me with a look that says 'are you sure?'

I nod in reply to her unspoken question as I take the mirror from her. I rest it in my lap as I reach up to undo the bandages on my face. Almina rushes over to help me when I struggle to unwrap it. Soon enough the bandages fall free and Almina sets them on the tray. I pick up the mirror, and without any hesitation or indeed thinking about it too deeply, I look at my reflection. I notice the scar right away, it was definitely big enough to be easily noticeable, and some part of me felt relief at that, I was different, distinguishable and unique, not some empty clone. The scar stretches from above my right eyebrow, runs down my face beside my eye, and comes to an end just below my cheekbone. Despite the length, it was relatively thin, only about the width of an adult's finger. Of course on the face of a three year old it looks pretty wide, but I know that as my face grows the scar will not. Therefore I deem the stretch of silvery scar tissue acceptable. I look back up at Almina's anxious face and smile up at her, "I like it." I say simply.

I see her face twist in shock and surprise before she asks incredulously, "really?! Because It's okay to say you don't like it Zelda, I'll do my best to find a cute hairstyle that covers it if you want me too."

I shake my head resolutely, "I'm being honest Almina, I like it." I give her a cheeky smile as I say, "it makes me look unique, how many other Royals do you know that have scars?" Almina freezes. My heart lurches in my chest, as she refuses to meet my gaze. I gasp out in sudden realization, "mom?"

Her eyes squeeze tightly shut as she nods reluctantly, "her burns haven't all healed yet, they were much worse than yours. The physician says that the majority of the burns on her back, and some on her arms, will scar. His Highness, King Jerrisel, broke down crying for his wife when he heard. I worry the Queen will have difficulty adjusting to her new appearance when she wakes."

I stare up at Almina's solemn face in shock as I process her words. After a moment my face firms up with resolve, "even more reason why I shouldn't cover my scar." I say firmly. Her eyes widen in surprise at my words, her confusion is evident on her face so I explain, "if I hid my scar then my mom might think that she needs to be ashamed of, and hide, her scars. I want her to be proud of them. She got them by saving my life and I am incredibly grateful for that. Furthermore, no amount of scars will ever make me think that my mom is any less beautiful. So I will show my support on my face." I pause for a moment as I assess Almina's teary face, "am I wrong? Do you think it will hurt her instead to see the scar she couldn't prevent me from getting?" My voice is weak as I'm suddenly hit with self-doubt.

Almina quickly denies my question as she very forcefully shouts, "NO!" She shakes her head emphatically, "I think she'd be relieved that you're not ashamed of the scar, and if you explain to her what you just told me, she would be very touched by your support and consideration. You should discuss this with the King later, I'm sure he'll support you as well."

Relief fills me at Almina's reassurance, "thank you. I'll definitely talk to dad later."

She smiles at me, "you're welcome Zelda. If you're going to talk to the king any time today, then we should finish getting those bandages off and getting new clothes on you. I'm sure it would be a relief to see you looking less like a patient."

"That's true. But do you think I could get something to eat as well? I feel like I'm starving." I ask shyly.

"Ah, of course! I'll get you something later." She assures, as she begins undoing the rest of the bandages.


	7. Chapter 7

Arc 1: First Life (and First Death)

Chapter 7: Discussion with the King

An hour later saw me sitting in bed free of bandages, in a simple blue dress, with a full belly. I felt –and according to Almina, looked- much better. However while my burns have healed, I'm still not fully recovered. Even just the small amount of exertion that was required to get dressed and eat has made my limbs feel heavy and weak. I'd originally been planning to visit my father in his rooms under my own power, what better way to show him that I'm getting better? Unfortunately it seems that plan has been rendered unachievable, so instead Almina will go to fetch him for me. Before I send her to go get him, we've decided to make some small but meaningful adjustments to the room to reinforce the fact that I'm alive and getting better. After all, while my father has already seen that I am alive and will live, I doubt I looked very healthy at all the last time we talked, he's bound to be worried about me, and my mother. This way we can hopefully reassure him that I will be healthy again and by extension that mom will be too.

The adjustments that we have decided on are small changes to the room that will hopefully eliminate the lingering association of Zelda being in her room = Zelda still injured. The first thing I had Almina do was draw open the curtains and tie them back. According to her they were left closed the entire time that I was unconscious, which left the room rather dark and somber. Opening the curtains will allow the natural light to fill the room and will make the room feel happier. Secondly, I had her open the glass balcony doors that had been behind the curtains, the air flow will get rid of the lingering scent of burn cream so that my room no longer smells like a clinic, and will make the room feel less stagnant and stuffy, which could be associated with being trapped, and I don't want my dad to think that I'm trapped in here. Next I had her remove any items related to medicine from the room, like my old bandages, to show that I am no longer receiving medical care, and am thus healthy. Finally I had her light a fire in the hearth, the increased airflow made it slightly chilly in here so the extra warmth will be appreciated. Additionally, fireplaces can make a room feel warm, cozy, and cheerful, which are all useful associations at the moment. However I have one concern about lighting the fireplace, my mother and I were hurt in a fire, it's entirely possible that my father will react badly to there being a fire going in my room, but I'm hoping that if I can show him that I am perfectly at ease around it then he will overcome his own concern. I intend to do this by sitting in a chair near the fire and reading a book, two things that were involved in the fire that my father could view negatively, but which are normally considered a cozy, peaceful way to pass time. Not to mention that sitting in a chair instead of sitting or lying in bed will give the impression that I'm perfectly healthy, and that I am only in my room because I choose to be. In this way I hope to successfully ease my father's worry. While I very much doubt that he'll be able to consciously pick up the changes to the room and their meanings, I don't need him to, my goal is to effect his subconscious assessment of the room to rewire his perception of my condition so that he no longer feels worried about my health.

I carefully clamber off the bed and to the chair that Almina has moved near the fire, it's angled to face the door slightly with the back turned slightly toward the fire. I nod to myself when I note the positioning, it will make it look like I was waiting for my father to arrive while also indicating that I am so at ease around the fire that I am comfortable having it behind me. 'Very nice Almina,' I think to myself appreciatively as I slowly walk the distance to the chair. It was quite hard to make it to the chair, but I wanted to do it myself even if it would have been easier to accept Almina's offer to carry me. By the time I've successfully climbed into the chair I'm out of breath and my limbs feel like overcooked noodles, I wind up having to take a moment to rest with my chosen book sitting on my lap before I send Almina to fetch the King. "I will be back momentarily, Princess." She says with a curtsy. "Are you sure that you don't need anything else before I leave?" she questions worriedly.

I smile reassuringly at her, "I'm fine Almina. Remember to act calm and assured when you're with the King please, I don't want him to think that there is any reason for him to be concerned."

She nods seriously as her hands smooth out her apron, "I understand Princess, I will take my leave now."

"Okay!" I chirp happily, I'm rather excited for my father to see me looking healthier, 'hopefully this will reassure him, I don't want him to worry anymore.'

Almina smiles at my cheer before she slips out the door and starts walking down the hallway. I stare at the door for a moment after she left, 'this is the first time I've been alone in my room since the fire. Well, while I was conscious anyway.' I correct calmly. I take a moment to look around the room, it certainly feels light and airy like it always used to. My gaze settles on the fire flickering in the fireplace, 'I considered that my father might not react well to the fire, but I never even considered if I would. I feel…' I stare into the flames, brief flashes of memory of my accident flit through my mind, 'slightly unsettled.' I settle on. 'I'm glad I haven't triggered a full blown panic attack after having sent Almina out to fetch my father, that would have been very bad for my plans to convince him that I'm fine. It's interesting how I'm only mildly unsettled despite the fact that I was much closer to dying in the fire than in the car accident I was in when I was… sixteen? After the van I was in rolled while we were driving in the mountains I was deeply uncomfortable whenever cars or buses that I was in would lean to the side. I was only lightly injured in that accident, walked away with three stitches on the back of my wrist and a bad seatbelt burn on my shoulder. I was even completely calm at the time, well not while we'd been rolling then I was scared that we were all going to die, but after we stopped and I found out the others were alive. Weird how I was more afraid of driving accidents then I am of fire, maybe it's because the fire is contained? If it looked like it was going to spread to the room…' My heartbeat jumps at the mental image and my muscles tense, 'well, that answers that question. Now calm down! You're fine.' I relax my body and take a few small breaths, my heartbeat evens out a little, I continue looking at the fire the entire time, I refuse to be beaten by a little irrational fear.

'I might as well get to reading,' I decide after I'd calmed myself a little. I settle comfortably against the chair and open the book. I sit reading for a good fifteen minutes or so, before there's a knock on the door. I look up from my book, "come in!" I call.

The door opens to reveal the King standing in the hallway, I hadn't noticed before but he looks quite haggard. His eyes have dark circles under them, and are no doubt bloodshot as well, he appears to be wearing the same clothes that he wore yesterday, and his hair isn't the silken river that it normally is, instead it's rumpled and tangled, and darker than normal, as though he hasn't washed it recently. 'Oh dad… I knew you were worried but I didn't know it was quite so bad…' He steps into the room and closes the door behind him, I can see his eyes briefly sweep over the room and offer him a bright smile when our eyes meet. He smiles back, and his whole face softens as the tension bleeds out of his body. "Your maid told me that you wished to speak to me, darling?"

I nod with another large smile, and gesture for him to come further into the room, "yep!" I chirp cheerily. "Almina says I'm all healed, and I'm feeling great! So I wanted to ask when my lessons were going to start again, and more importantly when and if I can visit mom?" I finish with a hesitant smile.

He crosses the room and pulls a second chair away from a desk and settles it across from mine, once that's done he lowers himself into the chair. He looks me in the eyes with a surprised expression on his face, "you want to discuss resuming your lessons already? But you've only been awake for two days."

"I know that I haven't been awake for very long, but I really am feeling so much better, not to mention that I don't want to get too far behind in my schedule!" I explain.

He tilts his head to the side with a thoughtful look, "hmm, well I suppose a week would ensure that you've regained most of your strength and the only lessons that you're currently taking don't require physical strain other than dance class, which I think we should postpone for another week just to be sure, other than that I'm alright with it if you start taking the rest of your classes again in a week."

I pout slightly at him, "a week? But what will I do until then?"

He raises an eyebrow at me, "you could read, that should help you pass the time while ensuring you don't exert yourself."

I blush slightly and look down, fiddling with the material of my dress. When I speak my voice is quiet, "I'm not actually very good at reading yet."

He looks surprised, "not good at reading? But you were reading when I came in?..."

I pout again, the blush staining darker across my cheeks, "that was a picture book, I don't actually need to look at the words to tell what the story is saying." Then I look up at him defiantly, "so you see, if I don't start classes soon I'm liable to get bored, and then I might try to play outside or something."

He searches my face for a second before he sighs and allows his shoulders to slump, "Very well, Zelda. You may start classes tomorrow, but you're still waiting a week before dance class starts up again." He finishes firmly.

I smile excitedly up at him, "thank you dad!" My face shifts into something a little more serious as I ask hesitantly, "and visiting mom?"

He pauses for a moment before he replies, "Zelda… you know your mother has yet to wake up right?"

I nod, "I know, but I'd still like to see her. I'm sure you've been looking over the both of us despite the fact that we were unconscious. I'd like to do the same for mom."

"I see. That's very thoughtful of you. However your mother…" His face grows incredibly sad as he continues, "she's very badly scarred, I'm afraid it might be shocking for you to see." He says gently.

I shrug slightly, "I was aware that she received several scars from the fire, and maybe it will be a shock to actually see them, but she's my mother. When she wakes up I'd see her scars anyway. Isn't it better that I get over my shock before she can see it so that I don't accidently make her feel self-conscious?" I pull my fingers through my bangs, a habit from my past life, as I continue, "besides, I have a scar as well, I don't mind it. In fact I rather like it." I pause uncertainly for a moment, peeking up through my lashes at my father, "it makes it easier to look at myself in the mirror." I finish very quietly.

The King looks at me in shock, "it makes it easier?" He trails off confusedly. He starts again cautiously, "but don't people usually find it harder to look at their scars?" He very quickly rushes to reassure me, "not that I think it's difficult to look at it! Or that it's unpleasant or anything! In fact I think that you're just as beautiful as always!"

While his response was a little panicked and rushed I could tell that he was sincere, so I smile in understanding, "thanks dad, I know what you meant." His shoulders drop in relief that he hasn't hurt or offended me. I gently finger the scar on my face as I continue, "maybe most people would be upset by their scars, but I'm not. It might have been the result of my own foolish actions, and I'll always feel guilty for causing the fire, but I came out of it with only a single scar. It should have been worse. If mom hadn't rushed in and shielded me then I would be at least as badly scarred as her, and at worst I'd be dead. This scar isn't the proof of my carelessness, it isn't a mark saying that my mom failed to completely protect me. No its proof that mom loved me enough to run into a burning room to save me. I will wear this scar with pride in the courage and love of my mother, and I will make sure she knows it." I stare up at my father with resolve burning in my eyes, "I want to see mom, to tell her how grateful I am for what she sacrificed to save me, and that regardless of what others, or even she, thinks of her scars, to me they are proof of her courage and selflessness, and I will continue to tell her that until she believes me."

My father rises from his chair and pulls me into a tight hug, "me too. I will tell her everyday of our lives that her scars don't make her any less beautiful, that instead they are proof of the things that made me fall in love with her in the first place. That, just like you, her scars are proof of her strength of will, her determination to do what she thought was the best course of action, and a symbol of her love for her family. And I am so proud of her." He gently pulls away, and looks at me with teary eyes as he continues, "you can visit her tomorrow. I'm sure she'd be happy to have the both of us visit. I'll start picking you up at your rooms at nine for a morning visit every day until she wakes up and gets well enough to leave the hospital wing. Does that sound good?"

I nod quickly, "yes! Thank you dad!"

He smiles down at me, his eyes still watery, "you'll need to rest up today to ensure that you'll have enough energy to make the walk."

"I know." I fidget with the sleeve of my dress nervously for a second before I look up and ask him, "could you stay until I fall asleep?"

He smiles fondly down at me, "of course Zelda, whenever you need me. Now let's get you back into bed." He reaches down and lifts me out of the chair, he takes a moment to set the book down on the cushion, then walks over to the bed and lays me down on it. To my pleased surprise he climbs into the bed beside me and allows me to curl up against his chest, "sleep well Zelda." He murmurs tenderly.

"You too," I murmur back as my eyelids grow heavy. "You need some sleep as well, mom would be worried if she saw you looking so haggard."

His eyes widen in surprise before they smooth into a tender smile, "as you wish Princess." He replies teasingly.

Almina popped into the room ten minutes later to check how things went with the King. She pauses in the doorway as she spots the both of us curled up asleep on the bed, she smiles fondly and slips back out of the room.


	8. Chapter 8

Arc 1: First Life (and First Death)

Chapter 8: Preparation

The next morning I woke up to my father's gentle voice telling me to wake up. I groaned and buried my face in the blankets. My father chuckles and cards his fingers through my hair, "I thought you wanted to visit your mom today Zelda. Have you changed your mind?" he murmurs teasingly.

My eyes snapped open as my head jerked back from the blankets, "NO!" I shriek panicked. "I'm awake! I'm awake! I want to see mom!" I shout frantically.

"Shhh, it's alright, Zelda. I know, I was just teasing." He soothes gently, an apologetic note to his voice.

I sag slightly in relief as I pout up at him, "that was mean! I would have woken up in a few minutes if you'd kept trying." I huff.

He chuckles, "I know. I'm sorry. Let's get ready to go see mom now."

I pause for a minute as I look up at him, his hair is still dirty and dishevelled, his clothes are even more rumpled than before, but his complexion looks healthier, and his eyes are no longer bloodshot. I feel some of the worry that I'd felt when I first saw my dad yesterday fade away, he'll get better. I roll off the bed and land with an audible thud on my feet, "you should probably bathe and change before you see mom, if she wakes up today we don't need the first thing she sees to be your messy appearance." I snipe jokingly at him. His face twists with shock and I dart laughing into the bathroom attached to my bedroom.

"Zelda!" He shouts, his voice faux scandalized, before he quickly dissolves into mirthful laughter. After a while he rises from the bed with an amused shake of his head and walks towards the door, "I'll send your maids in, they can help you get ready while I go have a bath. You should probably have one too, you little imp."

I pop my head out of my bathroom door and smirk up at him, "'kaaay. But I'm your little imp, aren't I dad?"

He smiles back at me, "definitely." He continues on his way to the door, "I'll see you in an hour in the dining room for breakfast. Also, remember that your lessons start up again today, so make sure you're prepared."

I bob my head in acknowledgement, "I will." He opens the door and steps out into the hallway. I dart back into the bathroom in order to relieve my bladder. When I come back out, I find that Almina and my other two maids –whose names are Felicity and Rin- are already waiting for me.

"Good morning Princess." They chorus as they see me.

"Good morning." I respond cheerfully.

Almina steps toward me with a hairbrush, I plop myself down in a chair to make it easier for her. As she starts brushing my hair she says, "the King said that you'll be visiting the Queen every day at nine until she recovers, and that you'll be restarting your lessons. Are you sure you're healthy enough to handle so much exertion?"

"I think so. Even if it's hard I still want to see my mom, and I don't want to get too far behind in my lessons. Besides the physical activity will probably help me recover." I explain.

"But-" she starts but is cut off by Rin.

"Almina, the Princess has decided that she can handle this. While I understand your concern, it is not our place to question the Princess' decisions, especially after she has already explained them to you." Rin says as she returns from the wardrobe where she has selected an outfit for me.

Almina looks down at her feet, "I know Rin, I'm just worried that it's too soon."

Felicity joins the conversation as she pops her head in from the bathroom where she'd started running a bath for me, "we're all worried about the Princess. But we know that our Princess is a strong and stubborn one. If she's decided on this, then we need to accept that we can't change her mind. However that doesn't mean that we just sit back and let our Princess run herself into the ground, as her maids it's our job to ensure that she is properly prepared for anything that she might attempt, isn't that right?"

Almina and Rin nod, determination written clear across their features, as Almina straightens and says firmly, "that's right! We can discuss with the Princess' tutors to ask them to lighten her workload until she's recovered more, or ask them to use the same classroom so that she doesn't have to do as much walking! We have options available to us that will make things easier on her!"

Felicity smiles at Almina's words and withdraws back into the bathroom. Rin's face is set in stubborn lines as she says, "that's right. We will support our Princess' decisions from the shadows like the maids that we are."

I glance between them and at the open doorway where Felicity has disappeared with a sweat drop forming on my temple. 'I'm grateful for their support and that they care so much, but why do I get the feeling that I've somehow created a monster?' I shake my head lightly to clear away such silly notions -after Almina had finished brushing out my hair. 'It's probably nothing,' I assure myself.

Felicity reappears, "alright Princess, the bath's ready. Oh, and it looks like Rin and Almina's already finished, that's perfect timing!" she says as she claps her hands together cheerfully.

She ushers me into the bathroom where they set about scrubbing me clean. After they've toweled me dry they start helping me into the clothes that Rin picked out for me. It doesn't take me very long to realize that Rin went out of her way to pick something that wouldn't stress me. The simple white sundress that she's picked out is the kind that slips over the head, most of my dresses have a number of fasteners on them, and several have layers that need to be kept straight as they're put on. The sheer simplicity of the dress makes it obvious that Rin was looking out for my health in her own way. I smile fondly at the thoughtfulness of my maids as Almina simply brushes my hair out again and doesn't attempt to pull or pin it up. Both of them chose simple, quick, styles that wouldn't tire me, I'm very grateful to them.

After I'm bathed and clothed I say goodbye to my maids and head down the hallway to the Royal Dining Room. The guards bow wordlessly as they open the door and let me into the room. I find my father already sitting in his chair at the table. He smiles brightly at me as I enter, "Zelda, you're just on time. Come and sit down." He says as he gestures me further into the room.

I walk to my seat at the table and sit down. Almost immediately a smaller side door opens and a few servants stream in and start placing food in front of my father and me. The food is delicious and I finish eating pretty quickly. I sit with my feet dangling off the edge of my chair as I wait for my father to finish eating. Soon enough he's folding his napkin and placing it on his plate, he rises from his seat and turns to look at me, "alright Zelda, let's go see your mom." I jump out of my seat excitedly and run over to him. He smiles fondly at me before he reaches down to take my hand, we exit the dining room and begin our walk to the Medical Wing.


	9. Chapter 9

**A/n: Sorry for not updating last week, I'd planned on it but things didn't work out.**

Arc 1: First Life (and First Death)

Chapter 9: Visiting the Queen

As we stand in front of the thick oak door that leads to the Medical Wing I can't help but feel slightly nervous, 'what if mom doesn't wake up today? What if she does? Will she be mad at me? Probably. But she'll probably be more relieved that I'm okay. Either way, she's my mom and I want to see her.' I suck in a quick breath and follow my father through the door. He moves unerringly past the rows of curtained beds -some of the beds have the curtains pulled shut but most hang open to reveal that they're empty- and comes to a stop in front of a door in the back wall.

The door is a dark oak just like the one leading into the Medical wing, the only difference is the plaque bearing the royal crest mounted onto it. This is the room reserved for when us royals get injured, and is undoubtedly where my mother must be.

My father knocks on the door briefly, and for a fleeting moment I expect mom's voice to drift out telling us to come in, instead the door swings open and a doctor steps out. He nods silently to father and starts walking down the long row of beds away from mom's room. I glance confusedly at father, 'why didn't the doctor say anything? Was he expecting us? Is this how dad's visits always go?' My dad reaches down and pets my head slightly before he heads into the room and I follow him.

The room is decidedly smaller than my parent's room in the castle, but that's to be expected. A hospital room doesn't need to be as large as a royal bedroom after all. As it is the room is already much bigger than the curtained off areas reserved for the guards and staff. There's a window set into one wall with gauzy white curtains pinned back and allowing the light to stream in. Set next to the adjacent wall is a large bed, the type fit for royalty.

I drift over to the bed. Swamped by the thick sheets is the –far too frail looking- form of my mother. I suck in a surprised breath at her appearance. Her face has large burns covering either side. They are so large that her face is more burn tissue than clear skin. She has a small, meandering patch of unburned skin stretching from her hairline down to her chin, which only extends as far as the middle of her cheekbones in its widest spots. The burns are reddish, in contrast to my own which is white. While the burns are extensive they must not have been very deep because her face doesn't appear to be deformed at all.

Her once silk-like brown hair has been shorn off and now sits at only an inch long. Most of it probably got burned off, if the burns to her face are any indication, while the rest was cut off to even it out. The rest of her body is very obviously wrapped in bandages under the nightgown that she's wearing. I distantly wonder if the patch on her face is the only spot of unburned skin she has left, before shaking my head and dismissing the thought, 'if that were the case she would have died.' Her face looks drawn and pale, and while the bandages might have served to make her look bulky, instead they make her form look incredibly frail.

My father stands as a silent monolith to my right, quietly awaiting my reaction. I turn to look at him with tears brimming in my eyes and my throat choked on guilt. My face must have been quite the sight because his crumples and tears start freely flowing down his face as he whispers, "oh Zelda…" and extends his arms out to me. I launch myself at him, my own tears streaming down my face as I sob desperately into his chest.

He'd warned me that she was badly burned, I thought I understood, that I would be able to hold on while in her presence, but the horror and guilt at the knowledge thAT I'D DONE THAT TO HER, was too much for me to hold in. I clutched tightly at my father's clothes as he cradles me in his arms and marvel at the fact that he somehow still loves me, that I hadn't noticed even the tiniest change in how he treats me. 'How do I deserve such amazing parents? Both in this life and my last?' As I cry in my father's arms I am desperately and ashamedly glad that my mother was not awake to see my reaction, I can't allow my guilt to negatively impact my mother's self-esteem. I look up at my father, the tears still running down my face and shakily state, "this should be the last time we cry over this, I don't want to hurt mom anymore." It came out more as a desperate wail than a firm promise but I think I got my point across.

My father cradles my head in his hands and murmurs, "Zelda… Zelda, your mother and I don't want you to hide your feelings from us, if you need to cry then you should cry. I don't ever want you to think that you should hide your feelings in order to protect us. We're your parents, it's our job to protect you, and I promise you that we are not fragile."

I glance at mom laying so still and hurt on the bed, "but…"

My father cuts across me, "no buts. We are not fragile. That incident was an unfortunate exception, but believe it or not your mother and I are very strong people, and we will not be easily hurt again. Not to mention that I know you will never hurt us like this again, not because I've forbidden you from using magic, but because I know you. And you will never hurt us on purpose. Have faith in yourself, and forgive yourself for what happened, your mother and I have already forgiven you, so please stop punishing yourself."

"I-" I hesitate for a second, I was about to say that I can't, or that I don't deserve to, but I looked into the serious, and slightly desperate, eyes of my father and found that I couldn't say the words. Although I also couldn't bring myself to agree because at this point I don't know if I can forgive myself, the hurt and guilt is still fresh, but I can promise to try. I take a second to breathe, in the hopes that my voice won't wobble when I speak, "I'll try." I promise quietly.

My father smiles sadly down at me and wipes some of my tears away as he says, "that's all we can ask."

I curl up against him and quietly watch the rise and fall of my mother's chest as she breathes. After a few minutes I quietly speak up, "she's still beautiful." And she is, she might be badly scarred, and look frail and weak, but her facial features are still the same, and far more importantly she is still the strong, loving woman who raised me. And as far as I'm concerned, that makes her beautiful.

My father smiles gently, "she is." He agrees quietly, but with conviction.


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N: Sorry, I tried posting this on Friday like normal and it wasn't working.**

Arc 1: First Life (and First Death)

Chapter 10: Back to Lessons

After a while of just sitting contentedly in my father's lap he sighs and says, "you should get going Zelda, your classes start up again today and you'll be late if you don't leave now."

I hesitate for a moment as I glance back at mom.

He gently strokes my head as he says, "you'll be visiting her again tomorrow, and I've instructed the doctors to come fetch us the moment she wakes up, but right now you need to get to class. You're the one who asked to start your lessons again, and it was me who argued that you needed more time to recover. If you've changed your mind I can send a servant to inform your tutors that lessons will be delayed until next week?"

I quickly shake my head, "no dad, you're right. I asked for this, it would be rude to my tutors to cancel abruptly, especially after making them hurry to prepare for the lessons on such short notice. I'll see you at dinner." I slide off his lap onto the ground and grab my bag of school supplies that I'd brought with me.

"I'll see you at dinner," he says with a fond smile as he watches me prepare to leave.

I trot over to the door quickly and pull it open, I pause for a minute in the doorway to grin back at my dad, "I love you." I say brightly.

He smiles tenderly back at me, "I love you too, Zelda."

I smile at him again as I step out the door and close it behind me. I resettle the bag on my shoulder and start hurrying back the way I came. I move at a light jog through the hallways, being careful not to bump into any of the soldiers or servants that I pass. Many of them call greetings and smile fondly at me as I pass. I return the greetings as best I can while puffing. 'God, I'm so out of shape! I used to be able to jog this distance without getting winded. I guess I am still recovering like dad and my maids said.' I think, annoyed.

After ten minutes of jogging I come to a stop in front of my first class's door. I take a moment to gasp for breath before opening the door, in the hopes that I will have recovered enough not to wheeze when I enter. I step into the class and greet my language teacher (otherwise known as reading and writing class, but that's a bit of a mouthful so I shortened it to language class), "Good morning Mrs. Heming, sorry if I'm late." I hurry over to the table that sits in the middle of the room, where my tutor is already sitting.

She smiles in greeting, "good morning Princess, and not to worry you're right on time."

As I settle across from her I wonder what we're going to do today, you might think that I would have a ridiculously easy time in this class due to having an entire past life of reading and writing to draw on, but you would be wrong. See in Hyrule, English doesn't exist. Instead we speak Hylian, and write in Hylian. It is vastly different from English. It was incredibly irritating not knowing what everyone around me was saying when I was a baby, in fact I think the only thing I did understand was when they said my name.

I struggled fervently to learn the language as quickly as possible, and I did. I don't know if the speed with which I picked up the spoken language was due to having a flexible baby brain, because of how much I practiced, the fact that I was already bilingual and had experience learning a second language, because I'd always excelled in language classes, or some combination of all of these facts. Either way, I was incredibly grateful when I started being able to distinguish the meaning behind the previously nonsensical gibberish that I was surrounded by.

However the written language was a far greater struggle. I suppose it's to be expected seeing as it was developed in a world without English, or even any of the languages that English evolved from, and therefore had very little in common with its writing rules. Before I turned two and started taking this class I was completely illiterate. But wait! You must be thinking, 'if you've only had a year of learning how to read, how were you able to read that magic book? Aren't they complicated?' The answer is, yes it was complicated, but I learned to read that book through sheer single-minded determination. I took that magic book, and a dictionary from Mrs. Heming's classroom, and looked up every. single. word. that I didn't understand. And there were a LOT. After all, the book was about magic, it involved a lot of words that you wouldn't come across very often, especially not as a newbie. I even had difficulty reading some of the dictionary entries! The entries would have words that I didn't recognize in them, so I'd have to look THEM up! Sometimes I'd wind up looking up the words from an entry, that was in an entry, that was in another entry, about a word I found in that magic book! At that point if I was STILL stuck I would take the last word in the chain to Mrs. Heming and ask her what it was. Which might have been risky but at that point the word I was asking for help with was so far removed from the original that she had no way of knowing what I was trying to do.

Honestly I felt like my brain was going to implode. It took so much effort just to translate a single sentence, in a book that was as densely packed as a textbook on magic sounds like it would be, that I worried it would take years before I managed to read the entire book on my own. How it only took me a year to translate is a miracle to me. Weirdly I never contemplated giving up despite how hard and frustrating it was, I think it was probably because I knew that no matter how long it took to do it myself, it would still be faster than waiting until I was sixteen to start being taught.

Of course after I thought that I'd finished translating it, I went back and reread it dozens of times for three months to make sure that everything made sense, and that I memorised and understood all of it. I knew that magic could be dangerous so I tried to be as careful as possible.

It certainly helped expand my understanding of the language and improved my vocabulary, but it didn't really help me in this class. I wound up neglecting my basic words to the point where I still can't easily write basic sentences or read simple books. However it wasn't all a waste of time! I learned a very effective strategy to help me read books, not to mention that I gained the skill to sit and study! I never really knew how to do that before. I was so used to things coming easily to me that when I ran into difficulties (specifically math) I didn't know what to do, nor did I have the patience to try to figure it out. But now I know how to study! At least for languages… I'm still fucked when it comes to learning math aren't I?

That aside! I now had a deeper understanding of the language, and significantly more free time that would be perfect to fill by reading, so I was excited to really dive into this class and learn as much as I could as fast as I could. I'm pretty sure I shocked Mrs. Heming with my fervor for her class, maybe she figured out what I'd been working on after hearing about The Incident, and figured now that I was forbidden from learning magic that I would lose all interest in reading? Well luckily for her I'd always been obsessed with books and reading, and my interest was unlikely to fade for as long as I continued to exist.


	11. Chapter 11

Arc 1: First Life (and First Death)

Chapter 11: Geography and Map Making

After an hour of going over simple sentence structure, language class was officially over. Mrs. Heming looked up from the test sentences I'd written and looked at the clock. She smiled at me and said, "well, that's it for today Princess. You did very well today! You've gotten much better with your spelling, but I recommend that you do some refreshing on grammar and tenses before we meet again tomorrow."

I blush slightly, both from the praise and from the knowledge that I may have forgot some of the things she'd previously taught me in the week that I was unconscious. I bob my head in acknowledgement, "I will, Mrs. Heming."

I start to rise from my seat in preparation of moving to my next class when she speaks up, "ah, Princess. Were you not informed that all of your lessons would be in this class today?"

I look back up at her in surprise, "no." I reply. 'although… didn't Almina mention that she planned on arranging this with my tutors?'

Mrs. Heming nods, "I see, perhaps the messenger we sent missed you. No matter, you know now, so I will be on my way. Your next tutor should be here shortly. Have a good day, your Highness." She gives a small bow after she'd finished collecting her books.

"Have a good day, Mrs. Heming." I reply, I briefly incline my head in response to her bow.

She exits the classroom and closes the door behind her. I look back down at the page of sentences that she'd corrected, 'I might as well go over the corrections while I wait.' For the next five minutes I practice writing out the corrected sentences on a separate piece of paper in the hopes that the repetition will help me remember.

I look up to the sound of a light knock on the door, which opens shortly after. My geography teacher (a short, stout man by the name of Mr. Klier) steps in. He smiles widely upon seeing me, "Oh Princess! It's so good to see you up and about again. And already starting up your lessons! Such enthusiasm for learning makes this old man so proud!" He declares boisterously.

I smile back at him, "I'm glad to be back Mr. Klier. How have you been?"

He settles in the chair across the table from me, "now that my favorite student is back I'm doing excellently!"

I laugh quietly at his dramatics. "I'm your only student," I remind him.

"That might be so! But I'm sure that if I had more students that you would still be my favorite!" He says with a playful wink.

"Oh? I'm surprised, surely any other student would be better at geography than me, I keep mixing up where Hyrule is located on the map." I say lightly.

He chuckles, "that's only a small mistake! Besides my preference for people does not hinge solely on their academic prowess! You wound me by implying so."

I roll my eyes jokingly, "of course. And not knowing where your own country is, is incredibly reassuring in a member of the royal family."

"Not really, no." He says smilingly.

"Hey!" I yelp indignantly.

He gives me an innocent look as he spreads his hands harmlessly, "what? I was just stating the truth."

I huff, "well I suppose it's your job to help me sort out this egregious failing."

He nods solemnly, "that it is. So without further ado… to learning!" He declares.

I snicker quietly but obligingly pull out my notebook.

He settles a map of the continent on the table, "alright now, Princess this here is where Hyrule is." He says as he points at a spot near the middle of the continent, it has mountains along its eastern border, and its western most side has a bay that connects to the sea. 'To be perfectly honest there is a nearly identically shaped country to the south-east of the mountains… it's just, you know, reversed. And smaller… Okay so they are pretty distinctly different, but why are the countries not labeled?! Is it just because this has been prepared so he can see how well I know this without cheating by reading the names? Whatever, I'll copy the map down and label the countries so that I can study it later.'

"May I copy down the map?" I ask politely.

He smiles at me, "that's a good idea! However we should make sure it's as accurate as possible if you're going to use it to study, wouldn't want you to think that one country is bigger than another if it's actually smaller. We'll dedicate the rest of our class time to recreating the map. Let me just go get some parchment, a ruler, and a compass."

'If we're drawing it to scale…' I speak up quickly before he can bustle out of the room, "is it okay if I draw on your map?"

He hesitates by the door, "draw on it? But why?"

I ponder for a minute, 'ugh, how do I explain this?' I start describing what I want to do, as best as I can, "I want to draw horizontal and vertical lines on it, so they create equally sized boxes, then I'll do the same to my paper so that they have the same number of boxes. Then I carefully recreate what's in each box on your map, it will help me draw all of the small details and keep it to scale."

He blinks in surprise, "my, that is certainly a novel idea! And you're certain it will work?"

I nod, "pretty sure, yeah." I think to myself, 'I did it in art class to recreate a landscape picture for a project once. It's where I learned about this method, it worked really well.'

"I see… it certainly sounds easier than the method I was going to teach you." He says.

I look up at him curiously, "how would you have done it?"

"hmmm? Oh, I would have had you measure all of the landmasses then convert them to a scale that would fit on your paper, after that you'd have to carefully draw each line and landmark, being careful not to mess up the measurements." He says distractedly.

I pale, 'that sounds like a lot of math… good thing I knew another method!' but then I mentally chide myself for avoiding difficulty, 'it would probably still be a good skill to learn. It sounds like it would be difficult to stop in the middle of and come back to though, and I don't think we have enough time in an hour long class to complete it.' I sigh quietly before speaking up, "maybe we could use your method on a different day so that we can compare the accuracy of both methods? It would have to be outside of class though, because it sounds like it will take awhile."

Mr. Klier brightens, "that's an excellent suggestion! You most certainly have my permission to draw on my map. Additionally I believe that I would like to use this map, after you're finished with it, so that I might try your method." He explains cheerfully.

I nod, "that's fine with me, it was originally your map after all."

He claps his hands together excitedly, "excellent! I'll just go collect the materials and then we can get started!"

He bustles hurriedly out of the room to his classroom and collects his supplies. Once he returns we settle at the table and he watches with keen interest as I begin making the lines. After finishing the lines I begin carefully recreating what I see in each box, I only get about a fourth of the map done by the time class ends.

Mr. Klier sighs, "well that's it for today, but do be sure to bring your uncompleted map tomorrow and we'll continue working on it then."

I nod, "of course sir."

He collects his materials and leaves the room.

 **A/N: I noticed a continuity error in chapter 7, so I will be fixing that today as well.**


	12. Chapter 12

Arc 1: First Life (and First Death)

Chapter 12: After Lessons

Four classes later I was shuffling exhaustedly to the dining room for dinner with my father, I'd eaten lunch in my classroom between lessons earlier in the day. I struggle hard to keep my feet moving at an acceptable pace as they drag across the ground, 'ugh, I'm exhausted! I can't believe I'm so tired despite the fact that I was mostly sitting all day. I think I'll go to bed as soon as I finish dinner, I clearly still need plenty of sleep because I'm still recovering.' I think disgruntledly.

Eventually I make it back to the dining room, the guards standing on either side of the door give me concerned looks as I come to stand in front of them. One of them –a teenage boy, approximately sixteen or seventeen, with brown hair visible under his helmet- actually speaks up to talk to me, they aren't usually supposed to do that while on duty. "Are you alright Princess? Your face is incredibly pale." He asks from where he'd kneeled in front of me so that we were closer to eye level.

I briefly glance at the other guard –tall, greying hair, probably in his early forties- still standing in his spot beside the door, to see if he was about to rebuff the younger guard for leaving his position. To my surprise he doesn't, instead he is also looking down at me in concern, clearly waiting for my answer. 'Do I really look that bad?' I think worriedly as I contemplate the guards' reaction. "I'm alright," I hurry to reassure. At their disbelieving looks I rush to continue, "really! I'm just tired from classes, after I eat I'm planning on going straight to bed. I promise that I'm not planning to push myself too hard! You don't need to worry!" I say with a bright smile.

They glance at each other for a second before the senior guard nods at his junior. The junior guard turns back to look at me and says with a small smile, "alright Princess, we'll let you go in now, but we hope you keep your promise. Everyone in the kingdom is worried about you and the Queen, we're all anxiously awaiting the time that you become healthy again. So please take care of yourself."

I blink at him, 'first Almina, then Rin and Felicity, my father, my tutors, and now the guards? I really must have worried everyone a lot… maybe after I'm feeling better I should go around to reassure the staff that I'm okay.' To the guard I say, "I will, I'm sorry to have worried you."

The older guard speaks up as the younger one rises back into position, "remember that we are here to assist you, if you need us for any reason in the future simply send for us. It is our pride to be able to serve the royal family."

I realize that he's referring to all of the castle staff and not just the guards. I bob my head in acknowledgment, "I will. Thank you Williams and Jessie."

The older guard –Williams- looks surprised for a second before he smiles, pleased that I know their names, "you are most welcome Princess." He says before he moves to open the door. Jessie bows to me as I pass, a smile on his face as well.

I step through the door to find my father already seated at the table, like usual. I greet him briefly before I take my seat. As we start to eat I think about my interaction with Williams and Jessie. 'They were both pleased that I knew their names, I suppose it makes sense that you'd prefer to work for someone who makes an effort to get to know you. I really only know their names because I see them every day, like with my tutors. Although I've never really been introduced to them before -in fact I think today was the first time that we talked- but I've seen them interacting with the servants and other guards while off duty, and I paid attention to what the others were calling them because I was curious. I really should make more of an effort to learn all of the servants and guards' names, it's not fair to them to expect them to work hard for my benefit when I can't even be bothered to learn their names. Yeah, I'll start making an effort to learn their names from now on!'

My father smiles at me from across the table, "did you enjoy your lessons Zelda?"

I look up at him and nod, "yes dad, I did. I'm working on copying a map with Mr. Klier, I think it might take a few more days before its finished. And Mr. Tyrion is teaching me a new song in singing class, he says that he and Ms. Sienma are collaborating to decide what songs they'll teach me, I suppose it would be nice to be able to learn the musical accompaniment to a song that I can sing."

He smiles broadly at me, "I see, that sounds lovely! Perhaps you can perform one for your mother and me once she wakes up. I'm sure she'd love it."

"You think so?" I ask excitedly. "Maybe I can sing something when I go to visit her tomorrow. She always sings a certain lullaby when she's sewing, do you think she'd like it if I sang it to her?"

"I'm sure she'd love it." He says fondly.

I peek up at him through my eyelashes, "do you think we could sing it together?"

He blinks at me in surprise before he smiles ruefully, "I'd love to, but I'm afraid I'm a bit tone deaf, I'd probably cause the window in your mother's room to shatter if I tried."

"That means that you probably try to avoid singing, so it will be a special treat for mom if you sing for her," I point out.

He sighs dejectedly, "I suppose the window can always be replaced…"

I jolt upright in my seat, a huge smile on my face as I ask excitedly, "does that mean you'll do it?!"

He smiles back at me, "against my better judgment, yes."

I grin ecstatically as I cheer my success, "thank you dad! I'm sure she'll love it!"

He chuckles quietly, "so am I."

We go on to plan our musical duet for a while longer before my father sends me to bed. I go to sleep that night excited and happy.


	13. Chapter 13

Arc 1: First Life (and First Death)

Chapter 13: Singing to Mother

The next morning I practically leap out of bed, my whole body jittering with excitement, and a huge grin across my face. Felicity had startled in surprise at my sudden leap out of the bed, from where she'd been pinning back the curtains and opening the balcony window. She places a hand over her heart as she tries to calm down, "my, you're certainly excited today your Highness!"

I grin sheepishly at her, "sorry about that Felicity." I quickly recover and grin as I bounce excitedly on the balls of my feet, "Father and I are going to sing to mom this morning, it took some effort to persuade him, so I'm really excited!"

She smiles happily down at me as she clasps her hands together, "oh that sounds lovely! I'm sure the Queen will enjoy it!"

I beam up at her, "me too!"

"If you're going to be performing for the Queen, then we should prepare a nice dress for you to wear." Almina adds from across the room.

Felicity beams at her, "that's a marvelous idea! We should do her hair nicely as well!"

Rin nods from where she's finished straightening out my sheets. "The Princess should look her best today," she agrees.

I speak up hurriedly to interrupt the enthusiastic planning, "maybe nothing too extravagant? I have classes today, and Mother is still sleeping so she won't see it anyway."

The trio deflates slightly in disappointment, after a moment Almina speaks up, "you're doing something special so we want you to look your best."

I smile at them, "I know, and I'm very thankful, but today isn't the best day for that." Upon seeing their disappointed faces I hurry to reassure them, "while today isn't the best time, Father and I have been discussing the possibility of me performing for them once Mother wakes up. I'm sure I'll get the day off classes on the day of the performance, and at that time they'll both be awake to see me, so it'll be the perfect time for you to dress me up!" I say enthusiastically.

Their faces immediately brighten. Felicity nods several times and says excitedly, "yes, that will be a much more suitable opportunity! And if it's going to be a formal performance then we should arrange a stage!"

'Oh… oh dear…' I think nervously as I watch my maids quickly descend into planning the event, trapped with the knowledge that this time I won't be able to divert them. I sigh quietly and accept my fate.

They spend the rest of the time coming up with plans as they prepare me for the day. I tuned out fairly quickly, if I'd continued listening to their grand plans then I would probably start getting nervous.

Once dressed and coiffed I hurriedly escape the devious chattering of the maids and make my way to the dining room for breakfast with my father. I greet Jessie and Williams as they let me into the dining room, they smile and nod in greeting but don't say anything, which is normal since they're still on duty. Yesterday was a pretty big violation of their rules, and I can't help but feel grateful that they care about my health enough to risk punishment just to make sure that I'm okay.

Inside my father is already seated at the table and I take a moment to look him over. He also appears to be dressed a little nicer than normal and I briefly wonder if his servants caught wind of our event today and got as excited planning it as my maids did. I giggle quietly to myself at the image of my father's comparatively more refined and older servants chattering excitedly together, as my father stands nervous, and resigned, as he watches them.

My father looks up at my giggling and asks with a smile, "is something amusing you my Princess?"

I briefly consider sharing my thought but decide against it as another peal of giggles try to fight their way out of my mouth. I cover a wide smile, and to my father I say, "it's nothing important."

Breakfast continues on like normal until finally it's time to visit mother. We rise from the table and walk to my mother's room in the hospital wing.

I bounce over to mother's bed and smile up at her sleeping form, "today we're going to sing to you mom! I hope you hear us and enjoy it, today we're going to be singing one of your favorite songs!" I glance over at my father as I step a little away from the bed, "are you ready dad?"

He nods hesitantly, "I believe so…"

I smile up at him, "great! Let's start then!" I take a breath in preparation and begin singing, I immediately wince as my father's voice joins mine, 'he wasn't kidding… he has a pleasant enough voice but he definitely isn't hitting the notes…' I ignore it and push on, simply enjoying the act of singing with my father.

" _Hush now- my story/_

 _Close your eyes and sleep/_

 _Waltzing the waves/_

 _Diving the deep/_

 _Stars are shining bright/_

 _The wind is on the rise/_

 _Whispering words/_

 _Of long lost lullabies/_

 _Oh won't you come with me/_

 _Where the moon is made of gold/_

 _And in the morning sun/_

 _We'll be sailing/_

 _Oh won't you come with me/_

 _Where the ocean meets the sky/_

 _And as the clouds roll by/_

 _We'll sing the song of the sea/_

 _I had a dream last night/_

 _And heard the sweetest sound/_

 _I saw a great white light/_

 _And dancers in the round/_

 _Castles in the sand/_

 _Cradles in the trees/_

 _Don't cry- I'll see you by and by/_

 _Oh won't you come with me/_

 _Where the ocean meets the sky/_

 _And as the clouds roll by/_

 _We'll sing the song of the sea."_

There's quiet in the room for a moment as the last notes ring out into the room. After a few moments I glance up at my father and ask, "why does mom sing this song?"

He smiles tenderly down at me as he pets my head, "your mother was raised on the coast, I believe her mother used to sing it to her when she was a baby."

"I see. That makes it a very special song. I think I'll sing it to her again tomorrow." I say quietly, eyes trained on the still form of my mother.

He smiles, his eyes melancholy, "I'm sure she'll like that. You'll forgive me if I don't join you in singing tomorrow?"

My head bobs in agreement, "That's fine." I look up at him and smile brightly, "I'm glad you sang with me today, thank you."

He bends down to kiss my forehead tenderly, "you are very welcome." As he straightens he glances out the window and sighs, "I believe you should get going now."

I look out the window as well and note the position of the sun. I sigh upon realizing that he's right, "I'll see you at dinner."

He smiles, "have a good day, Zelda."

"You too." I say as I leave the room.

 **A/n: the song in this chapter is "Song of the Sea" by Nolween Leroy. It can be found on youtube.**


	14. Chapter 14

Arc 1: First Life (and First Death)

Chapter 14: Music Class and Introductions

It was time for my last class of the day. I look up eagerly as my instrumental music teacher, Ms. Sienma, steps into the classroom. In her arms she's carrying the instrument that I chose on the first day of our lessons. At the time she'd told me to choose the instrument that I most wanted to start learning, she made sure to assure me that she'd be teaching me several different instruments over the course of our lessons, so if it turned out that I didn't like the instrument that I chose very much, I wouldn't be stuck with it forever. I would've chosen an ocarina if she'd had one, but apparently she didn't know how to play them. It turns out that in this world ocarinas are considered peasant instruments, and so I would not be learning how to play one from my royal tutor. Instead I'd chosen to learn to play the lyre. It is undoubtedly the instrument that you first think of when you think of Zelda, while the ocarina is Link's.

Ms. Sienma hands me the lyre, "alright Princess, the King has informed me of your plans to hold a concert for your mother when she wakes. Since he has entrusted me with teaching you how to play, it would reflect poorly on my skills if you performed badly. As such we will be dedicating all of our class time until the Queen recovers preparing for this performance. Today you are to choose ten songs that you wish to perform, I suggest that you choose songs that will transition well, and that you carefully consider which emotions you want to invoke while you play and in what order." She instructs briskly.

I wince slightly. Ms. Sienma is by far my strictest tutor, she spent the entirety of our first year drilling the proper way to strum the cords into my brain. It was incredibly tedious to practice until I could apply the exact amount of force to the strings that she dictated. After she'd deemed me sufficient enough at that, she'd started teaching me the different notes and then proceeded to supervise me as I sat for hours playing random notes until she decided that my fingers were nimble enough at switching between them. She's only recently started teaching me actual songs, so I can imagine that she's not terribly pleased at me suddenly deciding to perform for my parents. It's not that she's mean, she's just very prideful and a massive perfectionist, perhaps even bordering on OCD. It can be stressful being subjected to such exacting standards and close scrutiny, but when she gives praise you know she means it and she gives it freely when it has been earned, she doesn't begrudge the need to praise progress.

I begin the process of deciding what songs I want to perform, after a moment I sigh quietly to myself as I realize that I am very rapidly losing control over this performance. 'First my maids decide that I HAVE to be all dressed up and then there was Felicity's comment about preparing a _stage_. Now Ms. Sienma is going to nitpick over which songs I choose, and effectively run a boot camp to make sure that I can perform the songs up to her standards in time. Which effectively means that this is rapidly turning into a formal recital, who knows they might even arrange for an _audience_ ,' I think with a bit of disappointed sarcasm. 'When I suggested it, I just wanted it to be an informal, _intimate_ , performance for my parents to help cheer them up. Like when my father and I sang for mother today. There was no audience, no fancy stage or clothes, no worry over how well we were performing, we just sang. Why does everyone keep interfering?' I think with irritation, but then I sigh and deflate as I realize, 'they were also worried. They're all eagerly jumping on this opportunity without considering how I might feel about it because they are all swept up in the excitement of arranging something to celebrate my mother's –the Queen's- awakening. My performance is simply a convenient opportunity and way to do it. It might suck to have something I planned, be commandeered and changed beyond recognition, but it is touching how much they want to celebrate my mother getting better. I suppose it won't hurt me to do things their way this time.' I tentatively decide.

I spend the next hour playing a few bars of the songs I know to get a feel for their tone, to help me decide which songs would be best played together, and which ones I definitely didn't want to play this time. I made a list of possible songs and wound up going over each one and discussing their suitability with Ms. Sienma. By the end of the lesson I finally get her approval on my ten songs, it's certainly a relief not to have to worry about which songs to play anymore, but the hard part starts next class. Tomorrow begins the arduous task of learning to play all ten songs to Ms. Sienma's standards, I can't say I'm looking forward to it, but it is exciting to think of how much I'll improve because of this.

I gather my supplies as Ms. Sienma reclaims my lyre and I briefly bid her farewell before I leave the classroom. As I walk down the hallway leading away from the classroom I consider what I want to do with the few hours I have left before dinner, 'perhaps now would be a good time to start getting to know the servants? I did decide that I need to familiarize myself with all of them, the sooner I get started the better.' I turn down a different hall that should take me to the kitchens, seeing as it's so close to dinner most of the servants should be there beginning preparations, but it's not late enough that I'll be in the way of most of the cooking, so now's the perfect time to pop in.

I come up on the large double doors leading to the kitchen and through them I can hear the sounds of moving people, pots and pans being moved, and knives thunking rhythmically into cutting boards. I hesitate slightly outside the doors, 'they sound really busy… maybe I should wait until after dinner then go to the servants' quarters? But wouldn't it be more annoying if I encroach on their break time?' I dither about in front of the door for several moments before I decide, 'screw it, I'm going in! If I get in the way I'll just apologize and ask when a better time to talk would be, it'll be fine!'

My course decided I push open the door and step in. As the door swung open a few servants looked up in idle curiosity, only to still in surprise as they saw me enter. "Your Highness!" A middle aged woman with blonde hair exclaimed in shock. The rest of the servants freeze and turn to stare at me.

I feel my stomach flutter slightly at suddenly being the center of attention, but push through it to smile shyly at them, "I'm sorry to bother you, I just wanted to start getting to know everyone who works here in the castle and thought the kitchens would be the best place to start. If you're too busy though, then I can come back later?" I finish, my voice wavering at the end.

"It's an honour to have you in our kitchen, Princess!" Assures a mousy man with a skinny frame but a kind face. He beckons me further into the room towards a stool, "please sit here Princess. I think I can spare a couple workers at a time to speak with you while the rest of us continue working."

I nod as I settle on the stool, "thank you. I promise I won't stay too long, I don't want to interfere with your work."

He waves his hand dismissively, "this ain't nothing we can't handle Princess. You're always welcome in our kitchen and you can stay as long as you like." Several of the cooks nod enthusiastically in agreement.

I smile up at him, "thank you very much…?" I trail off in a prompt for his name.

"Ah!" He exclaims abashedly. "Where are my manners? The name's Justin, and I happen to be the head chef. My apologies for not introducin' myself sooner."

"It's a pleasure to meet you Justin. Please forgive me if I have to ask for your name again later, it takes me awhile to remember them." I say sheepishly.

He smiles kindly down at me, "it's no trouble to introduce myself again if necessary, it's already an honour to hear a member of the royal family call me by name." He takes a moment to look around before calling out, "Becca, Tyrn, you two will be the first to come chat with the Princess. Make sure you're polite to her." As the two whose names he called hand their work off to someone else he smiles down at me again, "sorry to be leavin' ya so soon, I've got to get back to work."

"It's alright," I assure. "We'll have an opportunity to speak again some other time."

He bows to me briefly before he hurries away to resume command of his kitchen. The two that he called Becca and Tyrn come over to sit with me, I ask them simple questions like their names, where they're from, if they like working at the castle, and about their families. I talk to over twelve people in the kitchens over the next two hours and ask them the same questions. I write all of their answers down in a blank notebook that I had in my bag, along with their occupation and a brief description of their appearance. I plan on eventually learning all of these details by heart, but until then I write them down so that I remember whom I've asked what.


	15. Chapter 15

Arc 1: First Life (and First Death)

Chapter 15: Realizations and Accomplishments

The next two weeks speed by in a blur of music, names, and fatigue. Ms. Sienma had me practicing even in my free time, so now my fingers ache in a way reminiscent to when I would practice archery for over an hour, and my fingers would get red and warm from the effort. It was strange to be reminded of something I hadn't done in a long time –even before I'd died- from something so dissimilar and which was completely new to me. It made me want to pick up a bow again… but I pushed the feeling aside. I was already much too busy with lessons and preparing for my concert to try to squeeze archery into my free time, not to mention I have no idea where I would find a bow, let alone one I could draw as a three year old. Additionally, I'm supposed to be recovering from the fire, and while the last two weeks have seen me regain a good deal of my lost stamina, I doubt my father would be ecstatic about me trying to pick up a physically intensive hobby at the moment, especially because my fingers are already in a good deal of pain and shooting would aggravate them. I quietly push the nostalgia to the back of my mind, and attempt to combat the feeling of disappointment that rose in me from my decision by reminding myself that I'm only three, I still have plenty of time to pick up archery.

Aside from my new desire to learn archery, I accomplished a few other things over these past two weeks. I finished my copy of the map in geography class, and Mr. Klier even praised the speed and accuracy of my method, although he did mention that he thought his method might be more accurate even if it took longer to complete. However I wound up pushing back the lesson on how to do the more complicated method, because, much like with archery, I simply didn't have the free time to spare while preparing for the concert. Thankfully Mr. Klier was quite agreeable about postponing that lesson when I explained why I was busy, although it did have the unfortunate side effect of making him very excited about the concert, and he exclaimed that he couldn't wait to tell the rest of my tutors about it as he was leaving the classroom.

I once again had to wrestle with my disappointment and irritation about the sudden popularity of my concert, it was getting quite tiresome that I had to keep reminding myself that it was okay, 'after all I could always perform for my parents again, it's not a big deal.' It was weird how annoyed I got every time someone else got excited about the concert, I could understand getting anxious about the realization that I'd have to perform in front of more people because I'd always had stage fright and a fear of public speaking, but I examined my feelings in private and weirdly I wasn't feeling much nervousness at all! I mean, I understood that I'd get way more nervous just before I walked onto whatever stage they were preparing for me, but the fact that just thinking about the amount of people who were going to be watching didn't fill me with anxiety was weird, I really thought that would have been part of my irritation, but apparently not! I guess I had to accept that my emotions really were just because I was unhappy that my plans had been hijacked, it was disappointing to realize that I really was petty enough to be annoyed when I knew why they were taking over and that it wasn't my only chance to perform for my parents the way I wanted to. It never was fun to realize that you were more selfish than you thought you were… either way, I was still determined to put on the best performance that I could, regardless of everything else, this was still an opportunity to make my parents happy, and they damn well deserved it! This decision finally helped me sort out my feelings on the matter and I no longer got quite as annoyed about the concert, even when people I hadn't even told about the concert started coming up to me with suggestions, or simply to tell me that they were very excited for it. Which I counted as a win for me, even if it was a small one.

I also made a good deal of progress in my endeavor to get to know all the servants, obviously there were still way more to meet, but I finished with the kitchens and moved on to the laundry room and then the tailors, which amounted to over fifty servants that I've met! I still didn't recognize all of them off the top of my head, but I was working on it. I think my efforts wound up endearing me to the servants, even if they were clumsy. By this point when I walked into a new area to introduce myself and ask if it was okay for me to interrupt their work, I barely got any words out before I was ushered in and shown to a seat where the head of the servants in that area would introduce themselves, ensure that I was comfortable, and then call over some of their subordinates to answer my questions. It made it quite obvious that word of what I was doing had spread around the staff and that they approved. I encountered several servants who worked in areas that I hadn't visited yet who would stop and eagerly inquire when I was planning on visiting their section, after the first few that I had to give noncommittal answers I decided that I needed to make an actual schedule so that I can answer them properly. Once the schedule was complete I made sure that I carried it with me, and I pulled it out to consult it when I got asked once again when I'd be visiting a certain section. By the end of the day it became obvious that news of my new schedule had spread around the entire castle because I got stopped far more frequently on that day than any other, and the servants were no longer surprised or confused when I rummaged in my bag to get the schedule, instead they looked eager and maybe even delighted. Two days after the schedule was made I was no longer asked by servants when I would be visiting their section, instead they made comments on how they were looking forward to my visit, or that they hoped I had a good time in the section that I was visiting that day, comments that made it obvious that the entire castle staff had memorised my schedule. I even questioned a few random ones to check, the result was that they did indeed know which section I would be in on which day, I couldn't help but be in awe of their information gathering and sharing abilities.

Whenever I was stopped by a servant, or stopped one of them, I would make sure to fill out an entry in my notebook on them, if I didn't already have one. I would start by asking them which section they worked in, if it was one I had already visited I would flip through the corresponding section of my notebook until I found someone in it who I thought was them, I would then ask if it was by asking "are you (insert name here)?" I would then get either a confirmation or denial. If I was wrong I would keep looking until I found the right entry and then try to make corrections to the description of the person so that it was more accurate. If I hadn't been to their section I made an entry for them in the section that I'd reserved for theirs, which I'd done by looking up the number of servants working in each area so that I could reserve a page for each of them. It was really quite a lot of effort to plan this properly, but I didn't want the entries to be all random because that would make it harder to use. I could get quite meticulous when I started planning things even though I was usually lazy and a procrastinator, it was always confusing trying to balance those two traits with being a perfectionist.

Using the notebook had been embarrassing at first, I'd obviously never used this method to try to remember people before because I'd never tried to know so many at any given time. I was certain the servants would get exasperated or annoyed with me for having to look through a book to remember their names, it sometimes took me quite a while to find the correct entry and that entire time the person would just be standing there waiting for me to finish, because they were a servant and weren't allowed to leave when royalty was talking to them until they were dismissed. I spent that entire time flipping through the book with a good deal of nerves running through me, because surely they had work they needed to get back to and I was holding them up, and they must resent me for keeping them hostage for the entire time it took me to find their name. Several times in the beginning I'd panic when it took me more than three minutes to find their name and I'd tell them that it was fine, they could leave, I didn't want to bother them, but they would just smile and tell me it wasn't any trouble waiting, and occasionally they'd comment on how it was impressive that I could already read and write despite my age, or that they were honoured that I was making an effort to call them by name. They were all so patient with me, and seemed to be genuinely pleased when I did eventually find their name, or when I wrote down their information and asked them questions about themselves. Eventually I stopped getting nervous about pulling out the notebook and because I wasn't as self-conscious I started paying more attention to the things going on around me, which is why I started to notice the fond, pleased, and indulgent looks the servants would give me when I pulled it out. Even the other servants in the hall would smile fondly at me as I struggled to locate their entry, it was surprising to realize that they weren't annoyed, they approved of my effort, and it made me appreciate them even more than I already did.

It was near the end of these two weeks when I'd finally decided to ask one of the servants if they ever got in trouble, or knew of someone who'd gotten in trouble, because I'd held them up. The servant had blinked at me in surprise, before her face had softened and she'd offered me a truly fond smile. She'd then explained that I haven't gotten anyone in trouble, because the section heads only needed to hear that the late servant was talking to me, and all anger at their lateness would evaporate, before they started asking how I was doing that day, and if I was making progress. I felt my face burn with embarrassment and pleasure that they made allowances for my actions and were all supporting my endeavor to get to know them all.

I'd accomplished a lot in the last two weeks, and came out of it feeling much closer with the servants, I couldn't help feeling proud of my progress and wondering if my mother would be proud too when she wakes up.


	16. Chapter 16

Arc 1: First Life (and First Death)

Chapter 16: The Queen Awakens

I was sitting in my room one afternoon after classes had finished, with my lyre in my hands, I'd already been practicing for a good two and a half hours, when the door to my room slammed open. I looked up quickly at the noise, quite badly startled, and came face to face with a red-faced, out of breath Almina. I started to ask, "what happened?!" but was cut off.

"The Queen is awake!" Almina exclaimed, so suddenly that she cut over me, eyes blazing, before a large grin spread across her face. She hurries over to me and draws me into a hug as I sit numbly frozen to the spot. "Her Highness, Queen Shiandra, has woken up! The King says that she asked for you, and that he wants you to come right away. Zelda, isn't this great?!"

'The Queen… my mom is awake?' I think numbly for just a second before it felt like a rush of electricity coursed through my body, and suddenly I was moving with frantic speed. I shove the lyre at Almina and leap to my feet as she obligingly takes it from me. I sprint for the still open door and only remember to yell over my shoulder, "thank you!" just before I pass through it.

I barely register Almina's shouted, "you're welcome," as I tear through the halls, feet pounding on the red and gold carpet laid down over the stone floor. I rush past servants, deaf and blind to any greetings they called as I past. My attention completely focused on getting to the medical wing as fast as I physically can, the only sound I register is the pounding of blood in my ears, and the walls around me blur slightly from the tears burning at my eyes.

Fairly soon I come up on the medical wing, and a servant standing nearby notices my headlong rush towards the door, and opens it for me so that I don't have to slow down to pass through it. I don't know if I actually managed to say thank you for their considerate action, I sure hope I did because I truly, sincerely, appreciate their thoughtfulness, but I was in such a desperate state that the entire trip from my room after Almina's announcement until I actually made it to my mother's room was a blur.

After passing through the door, I pounded down the rows of beds towards the private room in the back, completely heedless of whether there were other patients and if I might be disturbing them. As I draw up to the door of my mother's room my breaths start to come in raged gasps, not from the run but from the anxious desperation of being close to seeing my mom awake, of knowing that she's finally, truly, on the road to recovery, of not being able to believe it until I see her awake and aware myself, and the desperate, choking need for it to be true. The tears that had been building in my eyes the entire run start leaking down my face as I make it to the door and fling it open, I hardly slowed down at all in order to complete the action so I end up stumbling quickly through the doorway as I try to avoid falling on my face. Through the hair that spilled over my face during my ungraceful entry, I see my mom sitting up in bed, my dad standing next to her and cradling her hand in his own. Her body is frail and weak looking, the only thing keeping her upright the pile of pillows arranged behind her back that she's leaning heavily on, but her eyes are open. For the first time since the fire my mom is looking back at me with her warm brown eyes, and she smiles. My breath stutters in my chest for just a second, and then I hurtle across the distance between us, from where I'd paused uncertainly after entering the room.

I throw myself next to mom on the bed, my breath still coming in choking gasps, the tears running down my face in earnest, and my hair still tangled over the mess that is my face. "Mom!" I wail as I bury myself next to her.

A thin, shaking hand gently combs through my hair and I turn my head towards her in response to the touch. "My Princess," my mother rasps quietly, her voice quiet and gravelly from lack of use. She cups my face between her hands and lifts it to face her, she smiles lovingly down at me, tears shinning in her own eyes as one of her hands begins gently combing my hair out of my face, "I am so glad that you're okay." She says as her voice shakes from emotion.

My eyes close as I start sobbing, my hand comes up to hold onto the hand that's still cupping my face. "Me too, mom," I choke out, as I begin hiccupping from my sobs.

Once she's managed to card all of the wet, tangled hair out of my face her eyes land on my scar, and her face wavers, "oh, my darling baby…" she says as her tears slide down her face, her free hand coming up to trace the scar.

My eyes slide shut as her fingers touch the scar, and I smile at her despite my continued crying, "its okay mom. I'm alive because of you, and this scar is the only mark I got from that fire because you did such a good job protecting me. This scar is proof of how much you were willing to risk for me, and I will always be proud to carry it." I open my eyes to look pleadingly up at her, "so please… please don't think of it as a failing of yours. If anyone is to blame for the fire and the scars caused by it, then it would obviously be me." My head bows and my face scrunches as my sobs increase in force, "I'm sorry. I'm sorry for being selfish, for hurting you, for nearly killing us, for scarring you, for scaring dad. I'm so sorry!"

She sucks in a breath, then pulls me in to cradle me against her chest as she starts to sob, I feel an added weight and warmth as my father steps forward and wraps us both into his arms as he settles on the bed as well. My mother speaks through her tears as she hugs me tighter to herself, "my darling, my loving, smart, stubborn, willful, beautiful, kind, darling. I love you, Zelda. I love you so much, and nothing could ever change that. I forgive you for this. I will always forgive you, and I am happy beyond words that you're okay and that I will get to see you grow from this. That I will get to see the amazing woman that you'll grow up to be. So please, forgive yourself. You are so much more than this one mistake, and it would break my heart to see this burden you."

"I agree with your mother, you two are my treasures and I will wake up every morning grateful that you are both alive and still able to smile," I look up at my father to see tears running down his face, but he manages a smile when I look at him.

I bury myself back into the loving embrace of my parents, "I love you both so much~! Thank you. Thank you for forgiving me even though I can't forgive myself. I'm sorry, and I love you."

"We love you too Zelda. We'll get through this together." My father says firmly.

I lay there, cradled in my parents' arms as we cry for over an hour, simply absorbing the love and forgiveness of these two amazing people that I've come to love so much since that first night that I woke up in this world.


	17. Chapter 17

**A/N: This story isn't dead, I still have lots of ideas for it and still like the story, I just hit a period where I didn't feel like writing. Future chapters probably won't be put out as frequently as I used to, but I'll try to write more.**

Arc 1: First Life (and First Death)

Chapter 17: The Queen Recovers

After my mother woke up it was time to start preparing for my concert. While it would still be quite some time before the concert was held because my mother was still incredibly weak and needed more time to recover, the excitement among the servants had reached a peak, and the halls were frequently abuzz with servants chatting about the upcoming concert and how excited they were to see me perform. Ms. Sienma's lessons also increased in intensity proportionally to the building excitement in the halls, now that my mother was awake we had a more definite time limit with which to prepare. As such, Ms. Sienma arranged matters with my other tutors to make it so that I only had her class and my singing lessons with Mr. Tyrion on the weeks leading up to the concert so that I would be properly prepared.

My days leading up to the concert were filled with grueling practice interspersed with the occasional brief visit with my mother. She was weak enough that she got tired out too quickly just from trying to sit up and eat enough to make up for the nourishment she wasn't able to receive while in a coma, that I often wasn't allowed to visit her because she was sleeping again. But on the rare times when she still had enough strength left for my father and I to visit her, I got to sit on her bed and regale her with the events happening in the castle, the well-wishes from the servants, and my progress in my music lessons. She would sit and listen with a fond smile on her face, and occasionally she would run her fingers through my hair as I laid my head in her lap. It was still concerning to see her so frail and tired, but her usual joy and kindness still radiated from her eyes which gave me hope that she wasn't too badly mentally affected by the accident. It showed that while her body might have grown weak, and that her appearance seemed weirdly unfamiliar due to the new scars, underneath all that she was still the caring, strong-willed woman who'd raised me, so she'd be fine. And as the days progressed, I got to visit more frequently, and stay longer. I watched as my mother slowly regained her previous weight, as her movements became stronger and more sure, and as her hair started to grow back in -it might take several years for her hair to return to the length it used to be but it was a relief to see that it _was_ growing, and that she didn't have any bald spots. It took two months for the castle doctor to declare that my mom was fit to leave the hospital wing and start the next phase of her recovery process from the comfort of my parents' room.

Now that my mother was out of the hospital wing she was allowed to go on brief walks through the halls near her room, as long as she had someone to accompany her. So instead of visiting her in her room, I now went on short walks through the halls at her side, of course being only three years old I wasn't deemed a sufficient escort on my own, so on the times when my father couldn't join us on our walks, we'd have a guard follow a few steps behind us. While on these walks I would chatter about everything that was going on inside the castle, I'd always been talkative with people that I was comfortable around and I could tell that my mother genuinely enjoyed listening to me.

Quite frequently during these walks we'd be not-so-subtly shadowed and watched by concerned servants, they made an obvious effort to give us distance so as not to disturb our walks, but the concerned looks from servants who passed, the servants who just happened to pass us several times within a few minutes with rather suspicious reasons for passing through, and the ones that meandered unreasonably slowly down the hall behind us when I've never known any of our servants to dawdle while working, all made it incredibly obvious that the servants were worried about my mother moving around on her own while she was still visibly weak, and that they wanted to make themselves available in case she might need something. I found their attempts to covertly watch over my mother incredibly amusing, to the point where I frequently had to suppress laughter when I saw a servant being particularly unsubtle.

After five days of this behaviour I decided to intervene. Under the pretense of showing my mom how much progress I'd made in getting to know the servants, everytime I spotted one of the servants being too obvious about watching us I'd call them over by name and start cheerfully, and faux ignorantly, engaging them in conversation about how their work was going and asking what errand their specific section head had sent them on in this particular part of the castle. From the way my mother tried to hide a smile under her hand the first time I did this, it was clear that she'd also noticed the servants' behaviour and realized that I was gently chiding them for letting their concern hinder their work when my mom was clearly already being escorted in case something happened.

These pauses with the servants also helped act as a more natural moment for my mother to rest. I'd noticed that she didn't seem to like speaking up to ask to rest and she was slightly resistant when others (myself, my father, and occasionally the guard escort) suggest that she should rest. So, I also called over a servant whenever I noticed that my mother was starting to tire to give her a few moments to recover without drawing attention to her weakness, it seemed to work quite well.

These moments helped me realize that my mother was rather stubborn and prideful, she didn't want to admit defeat and she didn't want others to think she was weak, so she pushed herself in order to hide that she was struggling. It was so similar to me, that if I hadn't known that I'd possessed those traits since my past life I would've sworn I'd picked them up from her.


End file.
